


In Unity There is Strength

by bronzetaraj



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-11
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2020-10-14 08:24:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 72,244
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20597699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bronzetaraj/pseuds/bronzetaraj
Summary: In the moments following the end of Season 3, each members of our beloved group must figure out how to move forward and rebuild their lives from the wreckage left behind by Hiram, Penelope, and the Farm.





	1. Chapter 1

So I love this show but I think we can all agree that there were a lot of holes in the story last season and my OCD brain could not stop trying to fill though plot craters. This is my attempt to answer my own questions and clean up some story elements (like what the hell happened to the twins!). This starts at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy just after Cheryl saves everyone from her mother but before Charles and that odd toast at Pops with the flash forward. I am going to try to update once a week if you guys like it. Let me know what you think! 

It had been the longest twenty- four hours of Betty Cooper’s life and it still wasn’t over. It seemed as if years, decades even, had passed since she last slept. Her driving force had been to find the evidence she needed to bring down the farm and somehow free her mother, sister, and the babies. Boy had she found information in spades, unfortunately she had not been able to free anyone, nor did she know if they wanted to be freed anymore. 

Somehow, uncovering the secrets of the farm had led Betty to even more confusion about nearly everything. She found the smoking gun and it had only led to her being betrayed by one of her “best friends”, drugged and nearly lobotomized by Edgar Evernever, and saved by (of all people) her psychotic auntie Penelope. And somehow from there everything just got worse! 

After spending the night in the forest facing down Penelope’s insane challenges, getting poisoned, and watching her father be shot in the head in front of her all Betty wanted to do was take a shower and sleep for about a hundred years. She didn’t know if she would ever be able to wash off the grime of the last few days or close her eyes without seeing her father’s head exploding. 

Following Cheryl’s badass rescue from the forest, they had made it to The Sisters of Quiet Mercy only to find a broken Kevin muttering about ascension and giving testament but there was no sign of her mother, Polly, or Juniper. She also needed to figure out where in the hell Penelope had hidden Dagwood and if she had taken him with her wherever she was going now. She would need Cheryl’s help to track him down and she made a mental note to figure out the best way to approach that. 

She could hear Kevin sobbing and mumbling through the same story about ascension to one of the deputies and she honestly could not summon a single fuck to give about any of it right now if it wasn’t information on finding her ever shrinking family. All of this, the struggle to fight the farm and find the truth was to hold on to the only normal that she had known but at the end of all of this pain and struggle what did she have to show for it? The truth? She had exposed the truth about Edgar Evernever and she still had no idea if her mother and sister were alive, dead, abducted by aliens, nothing. The farm was gone. Her mom was gone. Polly was gone. She was pretty sure she had bits of her father’s brain on her dress and she could feel her throat constricting with each breath. Staring at the empty room, piles of white clothing an ominous reminder of all of the people who had vanished, Betty’s world seemed to be closing in to suffocate her. 

Her panic began to build and she barely reacts when a small hand slides into hers. It is when she feels the gentle squeeze of her hand that she feels in control enough to turn her head towards the owner of the hand that is anchoring her. Seeing Cheryl’s wide brown eyes, Betty can feel her breath evening and the panic ebb.  
“She got me out,” Betty is so tired that it takes a moment to process her redhaired cousin’s words, seeing her confusion, Cheryl continued, “Your mom, after Edger started in on the ascension orders she came and got me, put Juniper in my arms, and led me out of the building. She saved us both.”  
Cheryl’s voice had a hollow haunted quality that broke Betty’s heart. No one should have to endure the pain that the other girl has survived over the past year and a half. Nodding Betty squeezed her hand back and pulled her into a hug. She wasn’t sure which of them needed the physical contact more but as she held onto Cheryl she could feel her focus returning.

“Thank God!” She whispered into the shorter girl’s hair, processing her words, “All I wanted to do was save my family, but it all went wrong,” Betty’s voice broke, the absence of her mom and sister looming over them both, “I thought that Juniper was gone too. She is safe?” Betty felt Cheryl nod into her shoulder but neither of them moved to break the hug.  
“Yes, I left her with Nana Rose at Thornehill until we got you all back safe from my mother.”

Breathing in again, Betty tries, and fails, to blink the tears out of her eyes, “Thank you Cheryl. With my mom and Polly,” she doesn’t know how to finish that statement but she is saved by Cheryl’s nod as the redhead pulls back, her face reflecting Betty’s feelings. “I, just, I already don’t know where your mother took Dagwood and,” she felt her pulse pick up again as she vocialized the thoughts that had been echoing through her mind since they had stepped into this placed, “they are all I have left,” looking at the redhead, she realizes how selfish that statement was, “I am so sorry Cheryl. I didn’t mean that the way it came out. They are all we have left, they are yours too.” She pulls her cousin close again. Cheryl allows herself to be hugged by Betty, the blonde’s words just one more reminder of her own loneliness. Before Betty can continue her thoughts a few deputies enter the room. 

“We have searched the building, there is no sign of anyone here besides Kevin,” F.P. Jones says as he enters the room behind his deputies, unaware that he is breaking the moment between the two girls, “We are going to continue searching for any clue as to where they could have gone but that is going to take some time. Why don’t you all go home and get some rest while we continue to tear this place apart.” His voice is gentle as he approaches the girls, squeezing Betty’s shoulder in a paternal show of support, “We will find them Betty, I promise, I will find them for you,” the promise in his voice is so earnest that Betty cannot fight the tears filling her eyes as he pulls her into a hug, rubbing her back until she has calmed down, Betty still not releasing Cheryl’s hand. While F.P. comforts Betty, a Deputy enters and ushers Kevin out of the room.

At some point Jughead enters, stepping around his Dad he pulls Betty into his arms. She takes a deep breath, finding the calming scent of Jughead under the dirt, smoke, and blood of the night they had just survived.  
Sliding his arm around her back Jughead locks eyes with Cheryl, mouthing ‘thank you’ to her over Betty’s head recieving a sad smile of acknowledgement from the ginger. He moves to guide the blonde out of the room, her head resting on his shoulder, “Let’s go home,” he whispered into her hair, “we all need a shower and some rest. Then we can look at everything with fresh eyes and clearer focus.”  
Betty knows that his words are meant to hedge off her typical need to do everything right now so that trails don’t go cold and witnesses are not lost to the wind, but everything in her wants to ignore him and demand that they stay and search for anything that could find her family. 

“Jug’s right,” F.P. adds, “I have officers at every exit to town, the bus and train terminals, and the docks. The F.B.I. will be here within the next hour to help process this scene and the hunting lodge and Thorne Hill and a national Amber alert has been issued for Dagwood.” Glancing past his son, F.P. adds, “Cheryl, they are going to need to speak to you and process the entire estate to see if your mother left any indication as to her exit strategy. You and Toni are welcome to stay with us until that is done. You deserve to be able to rest in private.”  
Cheryl draws a quick breath before crossing her arms over her chest, “Um, thank you Sheriff Jones but I think that it would be best if I stay with my Nana right now.” Turning to Betty, she continues in a curt tone, “I am going to stay here a little while longer and pack some precious items I have here. Please go to Thorne Hill to collect little Juniper,” and just like that Cheryl is lost to them behind that very tightly controlled image that she has crafted to protect her from the world around her.  
Nodding Betty just mutters an, “Okay,” before Cheryl darts out of the room. Turning to Jughead she communicates her concern for her cousin and he nods to her, both adding Cheryl to the list of things that they are worried about but neither knowing just how worried they should be. 

Taking a deep breath Jughead glances back at his father who is directing his officers and photographing the scene. The phrasing seemed so mundane to Betty--scene, this insane scene that is causing so much pain to so many people. Jughead tried to avoid uber dramatic verbiage like “cursed” but it felt like the suffering and pain of the people held within these walls over the last century had leached into the very mortar of this building. Sliding his hand to the small of Betty’s back he gently guides her into the hallway, “Let’s go home,” he prompts gently.  
Nodding, she swallows the emotion and exhaustion that are threatening to drown her. After a few steps, she realizes that they need to make one more stop. “We need to go to my mom’s room.”  
“What? Why?” Jughead feels like there is cotton in his brain he is so exhausted, so he just follows her, unclear as to what she needs in her mom’s room.  
Leading him quickly down a hallway to their left and then to a closed door to the right Betty pauses, her hand poised on the doorknob, “Bet, are you sure you can do this? We don’t,”  
He is cut off at her terse nob, “I’m fine.” She blinks once more, “We need to get the babies’ stuff right now. I will leave the rest of it to your dad and the FBI,” her voice sounds unconvinced but Jug knows that they just need to get this over with. Pushing the door open Betty allows herself a moment to take in the lingering scent of her mother. Blinking back the tears, she pushes on, quickly locating the twins diaper bags. Grabbing the bassinets Jughead says, “I don’t see any boxes but we can load the bassinets up with what we will need right now and we can come back tomorrow and get everything else. Okay?” He pauses for her answer both of them understanding that his question is about more than how to transport the baby supplies, Are you okay? With this? With being responsible for the babies? With your mother being gone?

“Sounds good,” She answers and Jughead can hear the separation in her voice, she is task mastering this so that she does not have to really assess it. Jughead understands that she is just trying to maintain her composure and get through this in the same way that she has been trying to maintain since her dad escaped, and her mother chose the Farm over her, and her sister betrayed her to a cult, and a million other events that the beautiful blonde was carrying right now. He understood that Betty’s default was to manage everything and pretend that it was all okay but he knew that she was going to crash soon and he was worried about how and when that was going to happen and how he was going to hold her together through it. The babies being added to the mix also concerned him, he wasn’t sure that Betty really knew what she was getting in to and adding an infant, hopefully two infants, to this situation was just going to make everything infinitely more difficult.

Betty made quick work of loading tiny clothes so he packed diapers, wipes, bottles and a few canisters of formula into the blue bassinet. In the closet Betty finds a laundry bag that has a few stuffed animals and toys so she grabs it as well. Looking at the rest of the closet, Betty impulsively grabs a few of her mother’s sweaters and stuffs them into the bag as well. Standing up, Betty catches sight of a bound leather journal wedged onto a gap in the mortar in the back corner of the closet. Grabbing it, she stuffs that in the bag also, not commenting on it. Jughead silently reaches over and takes the bag from her, not commenting on her find. “Got everything?”  
Signing she runs her hands down her skirt, huffing as she remembers the ridiculous outfit that she is wearing. “I hope so,” Looking around she blinks back the overwhelming tiredness, “Do you see carseats?”  
Looking around, Jug shakes his head, “um, your sister has to have had car seats, right?”  
“I think so,” looking back in the closet she shakes her head.  
“Um,” Jug head feels awkward asking, “why is all of the twins stuff in your mom’s room anyway? I mean, did they sleep in Polly’s room?”  
“Honestly, once mom became part of the farm I think she was taking care of the twins solo. She always had them and Polly was just around,” she shrugged.  
“I guess that explains why Edgar was going to adopt them after he married your mom,” he also shrugs, “I am texting Dad to keep an eye out, for now let's take his cruiser home. He said that he will take my bike since we can’t take Juniper and all of her stuff on it. You can just hold her until will get home. It isn’t far and if you are going to break the law, I guess doing it in a police car is the best approach,” he quipped. Her lack of a response spurred him along more quickly, grabbing the bag and bassinets and exiting the building quickly. Fishing the keys that his dad had given him earlier before they had found Betty in the chapel, he popped the trunk and stuffed all of the baby things in there while Betty climbed in the front seat. Rounding the car he jumps in and wordlessly drives away from the awful building, feeling a shiver passed through him as the building shrunk in the rearview. Reaching his hand across the seat, he takes Betty’s hand in his.  
“Jug,” she begins in a small, scared voice that only he ever gets to hear, “are you,” her sharp intake of breath interrupts her thoughts as she tries to say the words, “you don’t need to do this.”  
“What?” He glances over at her, honestly confused as he tightens his hold on her hand in support.  
“Going to get Juniper, dealing with my insane family, you don’t have to do this,” her voice breaks but she gets the words out. “This is so far beyond what anyone should ever have to handle in a relationship and you are so young, I,” her words are rapidly spilling out of her in a rush that she cannot stop even though she knows that her whole world will change by the time she finishes letting him off the hook. “You deserve so much more that this. This fucked up family and a neurotic girlfriend who is surrounded by issues and problems that are just making your life more difficult.” Slamming on the breaks, he quickly pulls over and looks at her, mouth agape.  
“What the hell are you talking about Betty,” his tone was harsher than he intended but he is not going to let her do this again.  
Her stare not breaking from the dashboard she whispers, “Jug, I’m saying that my problems are not yours and you really don’t have to do this. You don’t have to take me to get my niece or help me search for my mom and Dagwood, you didn’t sign up for my bizarre, fucked up life and I am letting you out. No one will think poorly of you for not staying with the homeless serial killer’s daughter or walking away from playing house with a kid that isn’t yours.”  
“Stop it,” he says through clenched teeth,”Just stop.” The clear anger in his voice shocks her enough to make her look at him in surprise.  
“How dare you think so lowly of me that you would think that I would need to be set free. You know me better than anyone else on this Earth and have you ever known me to do anything that I did not want to do?”  
“Jug, this is,”  
“Just answer me Betty,” he all but growls at her.  
“No, you do what you think is right, and I don’t want you to ruin your life because you feel like the right thing is standing by me no matter what.” She argues.  
Hitting the steering wheel with his palm he continues, “Damn it Betty, standing by you will not and cannot ruin my life. Also, me standing by you has nothing to do with what is right or good. How do you not understand that I will forever stand by you because I love you. Love isn’t always about right and wrong, my love for you is the reason that I am alive, the reason I draw breath, the reason I dream, and the reason that I have a future. The only future that I want is with you. Your fucked up family, my fucked up family, this whole fucked up town, none of them have any bearing on my love for you and the future that we will build. Taking care of the twins, finding your mom, investigating the Farm, all of those things are gifts to me if it means that I can continue to be by your side. Am I clear?”  
Her face slowly crumples as his words wash over her. He uses their still joined hands to pull her across the cruiser seat and envelops her in a hug. Pressing a kiss to her forehead, “I love you Betty Cooper. Forever.”  
Bringing her hand to caress his cheek, she whispers, “I love you too Jughead Jones.” Kissing him gently, she composed herself, “Thank you, for loving me, for always being there for me.”  
Taking a deep breath, she slides back across the seat and he puts the car back in gear and pulls back on the road holding Betty’s hand the rest of the drive to Thorne Hill.  
Exiting the car, the two link hands and walk to the porch. Before they can knock the door is swung open and the two are greeted by a tired looking Peaches and Cream, the sound of Juniper screaming in the background deafening.  
“Oh thank God,” Peaches sighes stepping aside to allow Betty to rush in and follow the sound of her niece. One of the Poisons was pacing the living room trying to hush the baby, looking to the blonde Serpent the girl mutters in Spanish before handing the baby over to Betty. “She has been like this since Cheryl left.”  
Looking behind her, Betty catches Jughead’s eyes, “She’s hungry,” understanding her meaning he ran to the car, opening the trunk and grabbing the formula and a bottle from the bassinet. The girl looked guilty in her purple and black leather, “Sorry, I,” she sighs, “I didn’t know that she was hungry. There was no formula or baby stuff here and Cheryl’s Grandmother went to her room when she started crying.” Betty gives the girl a soft smile knowing that apologizing to the Serpent Queen was rankeling with the young Poison.  
“Yeah, Toni was rallying all of us and the Serpents to go get all of you when Cheryl just appeared, running with the baby. None of us were really ready to babysit.” Peaches and Cream adds.  
Looking at both girls, Betty smiles, “Thank you, both of you, for keeping her and Nana Rose safe. And thank you for being so willing to come rescue Veronica, Archie, Jughead and I. I am sure that we are not on the top of your list of favorite people but you had our backs and you have my gratitude.”  
Jughead jogs back into the house just in time to catch the tail end of Betty’s statement. Both Peaches and Cream and Candy looking a bit uncomfortable and unsure of how to respond. Saving them, Jughead adds, “Yeah, thank you. From all of us, thank you.”  
Shaking the jar of formula in his hand he looks to Betty, knowing that she knows her way around this place much better than he does. Smiling she tilts her head to the right and he follows her to the kitchen and takes the baby from her while she mixes the bottle quickly. Patting the baby’s back, he makes gentle shushing sounds, “You’re okay Junebug. Yes you are, you are safe and Aunt Betty is going to feed you,” the baby’s wails turn into small sobs and she melds into Jughead’s shoulder. “You are okay baby girl, I understand how upsetting it is to be super hungry and no one wants to get you food. I get cranky when I’m hungry too.” the baby had all but hushed, like she was transfixed by his words, allowing him to hear Betty giggling at his words as she waits for the bottle to warm. “And then to make matters worse you had to hang out with the Poisons when we all know that you are a Serpent at heart, isn’t that right.” Betty found herself laughing at that as the baby babbled back as if she was agreeing. His rambling seemed to do the trick calming Juniper quickly. 

“I think she likes you,” Betty chuckled. Watching him with the babies always made her happy, she knew that he would be an amazing father one day. His tone was so gentle and kind that it calmed Betty as much as it calmed the baby and in that moment, it finally felt like they were going to be okay. Hearing the microwave beep, Betty retrieves that bottle and test the temperature before walking over to Jughead to take the baby.  
“Oh course she likes me,” looking at the little girl who is transfixed by him he continues, “no one can resist the Jones’ charm.”  
Laughing, Betty rubs the baby’s back,“Lord knows that I can’t resist it,” she admits gesturing for him to hand her the baby. Scoffing, he stops her, taking the bottle from her hand as he slides the baby down into the crook of his arm, “No, no, I got this,” as the tiny girl latches onto the bottle and eats ravenously, he continues, “do you see that Junebug, your Aunt Betty trying to take you when we are getting along so well.” Smiling up at Betty they both stood in silence for a moment. Betty is brought out of the moment by a huge yawn that reminded her of just how tired she was. Noticing, Jughead asks softly, “Are you ready to go home?”  
Sighing deeply Betty nods, “Yeah, I really am.”  
Nodding he continues, “Are you okay to drive? I will hold her and let her finish the bottle.”  
“Um,” Betty takes a quick assessment of her faculties and says, “I think you should drive, I am so tired that I am seeing double. Here,” she gestures for him to hand over the now calm baby and this time he acquiesced. They seamlessly shift her and Jug grabs the formula can before slipping out the kitchen door and sending a quick thank you to the Poisons before guiding Betty out to the cruiser. Opening the door for her, he helps her settle herself and the baby in the seat before closing the door and rounding the car.  
As he climbs behind the wheel he notices a pickup truck backing into one of the barns. It looks like the truck that Cheryl picked them up in and his detective brain wants to investigate it further, but he chooses to ignore it for the sake of sleep-- his own and that of the two girls in the car. 

The drive home was the single most terrifying of Jug’s life. He drove extra careful, with quick glances to Betty and the baby beside him. With every mouthful of milk, Juniper’s eyes drooped more and more bring her closer to sleep. After what seemed like both an eternity and only a few seconds the exhausted trio arrived at their home. Jughead opened the passenger side door and helped Betty out before jogging ahead of her to unlock and open the door for her knowing that his sister is not awake at this hour. He follows Betty up the stairs to make sure that she does not stubble with the baby in her arms. The look on her face lets he know that she is indulging his crazy for the moment.  
Once they are safely in their bedroom he returns to the car and grabs the bassinets and bag of baby stuff that they had salvaged from the convent. As he walks back into the room he sits the things down on the table to be sorted later, preferably after like 24 hours of sleep. He sees that Juniper is nearly done with her bottle but is fighting going to sleep. Running a finger over the baby’s strawberry blonde head he cannot contain his smile. Looking to Betty, he sees a similar smile on her tired face.  
“Here, I’ll take her so you can take a shower,” she nods, “If I wasn’t in such desperate need of a shower and some sleep I would point out that you are a baby hog but we will ignore that for now,” they both chuckle as she moves up the stairs. Rocking Juniper as she finishes the last dregs of her bottle, Jug makes quick work of putting away the bottles and formula that they took from the Sisters. Moving the baby to his shoulder, he burps her until she drifts off to dreamland. Hoisting the laundry bag and bassinet filled with clothes in his right hand, he gently holds the baby in his left as he negotiates the stairs.  
He unceremoniously dumps out the pink bassinet and situates the mat back in it. Opening the laundry bag he rumages for a clean blanket. Finding the leather bound book, he makes a mental note to talk with Betty about it later. Very gently he transfers the tiny girl to the basket and tucks the blanket around her. Watching her for a few minutes to make sure that she is well and truly asleep. He hears what sounds like a sob from the bathroom over the sound of the shower. 

Quickly making his way to his feet and into the steam filled bathroom he finds the shower beating down full force while Betty sits on the floor, knees pulled up with her forehead pressed to them in an attempt to smother her cries. Her hands are balled into fists and Jughead can see blood oozing out of them.  
“Oh God,” Jughead is overcome with the need to make this better for her as he strips out of his clothes and joins her on the shower floor. Kneeling in front of her he reaches for her hands which open to him on instinct at this point. He gently kisses each of them before running them under the spraying water to clean the blood away. “Baby, I need you to look at me, okay,” he says as quietly as he can because he knows that she is having a panic attack, something that hasn’t happened in a long time.  
She looks up at him, her green eyes wide in terror and her breath short and stuttered. She gasps for air, trying to speak but she is unable to form the words.  
“Its okay Betty,” he says softy, “Its okay we will go at your pace,” her hands wrap around his as she tries to calm her breathing. As the shaking in her body ebbs, he helps her to stand so that she is in the direct path of the shower. She presses her forehead against his shoulder as he rubs her back, feeling how tense her body is. Reaching beside him he grabs her shampoo and massages it into her hair. When Betty “moved” when his mother bought her house all of her stuff just stayed in the room that had become theirs, even when she was “living” with the Lodges. Jughead still could not believe that her mother had sold their home and pissed off to the Farm knowing that Betty had no place to live. Yes he was incredulous, but also, it just did not make sense with everything that he knew about Alice Smith, Cooper, whatever.  
As the light scent of roses filled the steam around them, he slid his fingers her hair and tipped her head back to rinse the shampoo out. 

Betty felt her whole body start to relax as the panic ebbed and Jughead rinsed her hair. As he followed it up with the conditioner she felt her breath even out and her mind calm. Slowly breathing in the steam filled air she focused on his gentle touch and she feels grounded for the first time in the last week. She lets her eyes fall closed as he moved the shower poof loaded with her shower gel over her exhausted body. She suppressed a giggle at the memory of his “rules” when he moved into what he always insisted was their room even though she knows that it was her room until her brainwashed ass mother sold their house and left her homeless and then it became his room and he and his dad were just kind enough to let her stay. His big rules are to keep the curtains drawn because he did want Archie trying to see either of them naked, and he would have his own shampoo, conditioner, and soap (not a girly gel) and wash rag (no girly puff thing that looked like a dead sea creature). So far, Archie had accidentally seen them in a very naked, very private moment, and Jughead had gone to school more than once smelling like roses and peach body gel. 

As he worked his way down her body she felt her voice return, “Is Juniper okay?”  
He looks up at from where is kneeling sliding the poof down her legs and ankles, washing away the dirt, mud, and what looked suspiciously like blood from the night before. Pressing a kiss to her solar plexus, he smiles up at her as her hand slips into his hair. “She’s fine. She went right to sleep.”  
She smiles gently, her brain quiets, “Thank you. For that, for everything over the past year, for loving me.”  
Standing he kisses her gently, “You never have to thank me for that. Loving you is like breathing, completely involuntary and something I have to do to keep living.”  
She wraps her arms around him, pressing her head to his sternum as he presses a kiss to her wet head. “I love you. More than I ever thought it was possible to love anyone.”  
Raising her head he kisses her again. “Go get some sleep. I’m going, you know, shower myself and I will join you.”  
She giggles and he kisses the end of her nose before she climbs out of the shower and wraps a towel around herself.  
Betty walks into her room and sees the bassinet set on the floor beside her bed, her niece snuggled safe and sleeping peacefully. Pulling one of jugs t-shirts over her head and slipping on a pair of thin cotton shorts she is asleep the minute she climbs in under the covers.


	2. Quiet as the Tomb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this over a month ago and I still don't know that it is right. It starts with Veronica POV and I think that I am most uncomfortable writing her voice. It also has a Betty/ Cheryl scene that I think needs to happen (and is just the start of the relationship between the two in this fic) but again, I'm not sure that it is correct. Let me know what you think.

As Veronica mounted the four steps up to the Andrew’s porch she felt like she was climbing the Eiffel Tower. It must have taken her a while because as she lifted her hand to ring the bell, Archie was already opening the door to greet her.

Taking in his girlfriend? Maybe girlfriend? He wasn’t very sure about where their relationship stood but all that mattered was the fact that Veronica looked sad. Not Up sad but like everything in your world just fell down around you kind of sad. Reaching for her, he slides his hand around her waist, “Ronnie, what’s,” his question is cut off by her face crumpling and her entire body being racked with sobs. She collapses into his chest as bitter tears roll down her face. In one motion he kneels down to scoop her up bridal style and carry her up the stairs to his bedroom. Kicking the door shut behind him as they entered his bedroom. Even though no one else was in the house he felt like she needed to feel like she was in a private space. 

Sitting down on the bed he holds her on his lap, wrapping his arms around her and trying to make her feel loved and protected. As her sobs slowed she looked up at Archie breathing heavily, her eyes locking on his as she dives in and kisses him with abandon. Twisting her body she moves to straddle him on the bed she breaks from his lips when oxygen becomes an issue and uses the opportunity to jerk his shirt over his head before diving back in. 

As much as every cell in his body wants Veronica he steals her hands as they attack his belt. “Ronnie,” his words are broken by her kisses, “Ronnie, stop,” another kiss and there goes her shirt over her head, “Veronica!” He puts his hands on her shoulders and gently pushes her back.

“What?” Her voice holds the same tone that it does when she pretends to be “Ice Princess Veronica” to protect herself from the world.   
Sliding his hand onto her face he watches her eyes soften. “Ronnie as much as I want to do this, I want you more. I want you forever and us having sex now is going to be using sex to avoid an issue. That is exactly what broke up before. We need to learn, as a couple, to talk through stuff instead of just dulling the hurt and never addressing it.”

Closing her eyes, she breathed hard out of her nose before chuckling and finally reaching behind him she grabbed his discarded shirt and swung her leg off of him to stand. Pull his shirt over her head she sighed and began to speak. For his part Archie looked concerned, and he was, both about her reaction and about her well being.   
“I think that I screwed up Archie.” She tears up again but takes a deep breath and starts to pace as she works her way through the story. He represses a smile at the move because the anxious pacing was a very Betty move and Veronica had clearly picked it up.   
“I knew that there would be blow back from my father when we sent him back to prison but I was stupid enough to think that my mother was not going to be in the line of fire. I mean she told me Archie, she fucking told me that I was safe from him because I am his blood but that she was not. They aren’t married anymore but she is the mayor and I thought that high profile would protect or in the short term but I forgot that Daddy always has a back up plan to events that he hasn’t thought up yet. Paranoid bastard!”   
Archie listens quietly as she explains about the F.B.I. raid this morning and her mother’s arrest. 

“Okay, let’s break this down. Does your mom have a lawyer?” Archie was trying to think like Betty and Jughead. He unconsciously glanced toward their window, noting that it was still dark, so he assumed that they were still asleep.   
Swallowing tears again, she throws her hands up, “I don’t know! I don’t even know how to contact her or if I should call someone. I hate feeling this powerless.” Her pacing stills as her arms fall to her sides and her teary, desperate brown eyes fall to his.   
“I am texting my mom to see if she can find out anything. F.P. came over earlier and they had a whisper conversation and then they left together. She said she had to go help at the Sheriff stations and she would be gone a while. Maybe she can find to where your mom is and what we need to do from here.”

Stepping forward she slid her arms around his neck and said, “Thank you.” As she hugs him her eye s are also drawn out of the window, “Have you heard from Betty or Jughead?”   
“No,” He let his gaze follow hers, “The light is out so they may still be asleep.”  
“The downstairs lights are on, let’s go see if they are up. I really need their minds right now because I am nowhere near calm and I want to make sure that Betty is okay after, you know,” Veronica’s intent hangs in the air her mom. “Dios, after her dad and her sister’s shit you think she should have at least one family member that she can depend on.” Veronica’s stare out the window was broken by Archie’s words, “She does.” Nodding, she reaches down and takes his hand, “You’re right, she does. Let’s go show her.”  
She turns and is out of his bedroom door before he realizes, “Hey, you have on my shirt.”  
Popping her head back in she smiles, “You can wear mine,or you know grab another one.”   
She barely dodges her purple sweater as he throws it at her before grabbing a bulldogs t-shirt and following her down the stairs. 

Knocking on the Jones’ door, Veronica is taken aback a little when a girl with mousy brown hair and an attitude opened the door.   
“Who are you?” The girl asked unimpressed before seeing Archie jogged up the stairs behind her.  
“Hey JB, is Jug here?” Archie caused a significant change in the girl’s demeanor and Veronica suppressed a chuckle and introduced herself, “You must be Jughead’s sister, I’m Veronica.”  
Scrunching her eyebrows, JB responded, “Didn’t your dad try to kill Archie?”  
Unable to repress her giggle, her response was cut off by Jughead, “Jellybean, stop it. Your waffles are ready on the counter,” looking to the couple on the porch, “Hey guys come on in.”  
Jellybean rolls her eyes and wonders back into the house, grabbing her plate and carrying it upstairs.   
Looking to Veronica, Jughead mumbles a “sorry,” Veronica smiled and patted his shoulder as she walked into the house, “don’t be, she seems pretty awesome.” Veronica assured him. 

Obviously she and Jughead were in the same circle because of Betty and Archie but they had not ever really defined themselves as friends outside of their relationships, but through this experience Veronica has come to understand that shame is an innate part of the way that Jughead interacts with other people. He was ashamed of where he came from, of who he came from, and he put up walls of flannel and quips and avoided eye contact to protect himself from other people’s opinions. It was something that she recognized in herself as well. The difference was that she had money to throw at problems and she was much more extroverted while Jughead had learned to be invisible.   
She had recognized the change in him when he joined the Serpents, it was like he finally accepted the part of himself that he had been told by his peers, his friends even, was something to be ashamed of. Even though she and Jughead did not have a close friendship, she was proud of the way that he had emerged as a thoughtful leader and a more confident person. While the Serpents had become a society that accepted him, his relationship with Betty had put him on the path to being a man that is worthy of her, something else that they had in common because Betty was so amazing that she made Veronica want to be a better person too. She vowed to herself to try harder at building a true friendship with Jughead and with Toni beyond her relationships with Betty and Cheryl.   
Jughead gestured for the to follow him through to the kitchen where he was making breakfast, even though it was almost 4 in the afternoon. “You guys hungry?” He asked as he took out one waffle and pour the batter in for another.  
“Yes!” Archie said with way more excitement that Veronica thought possible on as little sleep as they had gotten. She smiled and nodded when Jughead look to her while Archie rummaged through the refrigerator for something to drink.   
Moving towards the cabinets Veronica grabbed plates and placed them beside Jughead before grabbing glasses and placing them on the table and instructing Archie to fill them from the orange juice that he had found in the fridge. As she set the silverware she asked, “Is Betty here?”  
Nodding as he plated the waffle and made another, “Yeah, they’re upstairs.”  
Pausing, Veronica tilted her head, “They’re?”  
Her question was answered when the blonde entered the room wearing Jughead’s t-shirt, her hair down, and a baby balanced on her hip.   
Looking around, Betty was surprised to see Archie and Veronica but she shrugged it off after the past few days she needed people who she cared about and who cared about her near her. She walked into the kitchen and kissed Jug before moving to the blue bassinet that was still sitting on the counter and grabbed the formula can and a clean bottle out of the drain smiling to herself that Jughead had sterilized all of them while she had been sleeping. As she made the bottle she noticed that Archie was staring at her, or more specifically at the baby on her hip.   
“Hey guys,” she said, trying to be less awkward by actually acknowledging her guest.   
“What are you doing with a baby?” Archie still looked confused.  
The other three teens all looked at him like he had said that the moon was made of cream cheese, “Um, this is Juniper, my niece.” Betty said as tested the bottle on the inside of her arm. Seeing that the redhead was still a bit confused but childed by their looks at his first question she explained, “My mom got her and Cheryl out of the Farm when Edger started to round up his followers for the ascension, whatever the hell that means. Cheryl left her with Nana Rose when she came to get us so I went and picked her up when we left the old convent.”  
“Why didn’t Cheryl keep her?” Veronica asked idly as she took the last waffle plate from Jughead and walked over to the table to sit beside Archie.   
Betty sat down at the chair across from her and adjusted the baby into the bend of her arm before rubbing the bottle on the baby’s month. For her part, Juniper attacked the bottle like Jughead on a hamburger. Looking down at the baby, Betty focused her thoughts, “Um, honestly I am a little worried about Cheryl. She told me to go get Juniper and I was taken aback. She is always so protective of the twins that it shocked me that she was so willing to hand her off to me. I wonder how much she knows about what happened to Dagwood. I know F.P. has alerted both federal and local law enforcement agencies looking for him but it still doesn’t make sense that Cheryl would let them be separated, much less let her mother take him without a fight. I would wager that she does not know the details. She has been through so much and God knows what Edger did to her.” Everyone nodded in agreement.  
“We need to keep close watch on her to make sure she doesn’t do anything drastic,” the “again” echoes silently through the friends who are all drawn back to that day on the ice 8 months ago.   
“Jug, does your dad know anything yet?” Archie ask.  
“Um, not really,” Jughead leaned forward as he paused eating his waffle, “He and the F.B.I. are still searching the Sisters of Quiet Mercy and all of the records that they have there. He brought my bike back earlier and took a quick nap before he took the cruiser and went back. His big focus is finding Dagwood and Alice, unfortunately those are tasks that are pulling in two different directions and taxing all of their resources.”  
Betty looks up, “I didn’t realize that he had come home.”  
“Yeah, you were asleep so Juniper and I came down here until she was tired again so she didn’t wake you up.” she smiled back at him, mouthing “thanks” before turning to the others who were clearly watching them, “I say we focus on Dagwood for now. We need to get him back from that harpy as quickly as possible.” Her voice had a steel in it that she had lost since her dad’s ‘resurrection’.   
“Okay, so if Penelope wanted Dagwood what would she do with him?” Archie asked.  
“And if she hated men so much, why would she want the boy twin?” Veronica added.  
“Because she wanted to replace Jason” Betty murmured as her mind compiled clues like an adding machine.   
“Yeah, but didn’t she try to do that with Chic, I mean she called him Jason, and the red hair,” Veronica continued.   
“She took him to the Maple club, Chic I mean, and” Jughead began before he was interrupted by his phone. He excused himself from the table as the others brain stormed to answer it.   
Looking back at the table from the living room he smiled at Betty who was burping Juniper while laying out clues. “Hey Toni,” he answered, a bit unsure why the former Serpent was calling. Their relationship was in tatters, something that he meant to remedy once they all caught their breath.   
“Are you with Betty?” Her tone is terse, worried.   
“Yeah, what’s wrong?” His mood shifted at Toni’s concerned voice.   
“I can’t find Cheryl! I’ve been trying to call Betty but she isn’t answering. She is the last person to see her.”  
“Toni, tell me exactly what happened,”Jughead prompts.   
With a frustrated sigh, Toni answers him, “I took the van back with the Poisons and Serpents that we rallied to get you guys and she said that she was going to give you guys a ride home in the pickup truck but when I got home from dropping every home she wasn’t here and Peaches said that you and Betty came and got the baby but no one has seen Cheryl. Has she called Betty? Neither of them have answered my calls.”  
“Um, Betty’s phone may be dead but I thought I saw Cheryl driving toward the outbuildings when we were leaving with the baby. Don’t go out there by yourself because we don’t know where Penelope is. Lock the doors and windows and stay with Nana Rose, we're on our way and we will go search together.” He knows that she doesn’t want to wait but she finally acquiesced with a “Hurry” before hanging up.   
Looking to the table, all eyes on him and clearly having heard his conversation, he takes the baby from Betty as she rushes upstairs to get dressed and he calls upstairs for his sister, “Cheryls missing, Toni hasn’t seen her since the Sisters this morning. I think I know where she may be and why but it ain’t going to be pretty,” his explanation cut off by Jellybean bounding down the stairs, closely followed by Betty, now wearing jeans and a light purple sweater, pulling her hair into a much more messy than usual ponytail.   
“JB, I hate to do this but it is an emergency, can you babysit?”   
“What do you think I have been doing with you?” She retorts while taking the sleepy baby from him.  
“She just ate and has a clean diaper, she will fall asleep any minute,” Betty assures her as she grabs her Serpent jacket and two helmets from the mudroom, handing Jug his before she kisses both Juniper and JB on the head, saying “Thank you,” and rushing everyone out the door. Climbing on the back of the bike she sends up a prayer to whomever is listening that Cheryl is safe. Adding in that Dagwood, her mother, and Polly were also safe. She needed to get in front of this problem--set of problems? God, at this point she really didn’t know the problems that needed solutions, how to approach them, how to communicate what she needed to do. She felt like Dorothy, spinning about in the tornado with no idea how to make it stop or where she is when she lands. Her whole world was unrecognizable to what is was 18 months ago. Her sister, who she used to idolize was lost to her along with her mother because they joined an organ stealing cult, her father was a now dead serial killer, her closest relatives were Blossoms, and she was hopelessly in love with the Serpent King. Ironically with all that had happened Betty felt more herself, more at home in her own skin, than she ever had when her family was still ‘perfect’. 

As the bike came to a stop in front of Thistle House Toni met them in the drive, “Which of the outbuildings did you see her going into?” She asked Jughead in lieu of a greeting, worry etched all over her beautiful features.   
Stowing his helmet on the bike while Betty did the same he waited a moment for Veronica and Archie to exit Veronica’s car and join them. He actually chuckled when he looked down and saw Veronica wearing sneakers on her feet that she must have changed into in the car.   
“What,” she shrugged, “I started keeping clothes in my car that were good for fleeing when I realized how much I end up running from things around here and I twisted my ankle one too many times.”  
Raising his eyebrows in agreement, Jug replied, “That is really smart,” before turning to the whole group before Toni punched him so they could get on with the search.

“Okay guys before we head out we need to establish something,” as Toni’s frustrated huff, he notices Betty slide her hand into Toni’s, shaking her head, silently letting her know that this was not a delay tactic and that they were all here to help her and Cheryl. Toni closed her eyes, took a deep breath and nodded, still holding Betty’s hand. Continuing, Jughead said, “Penelope is still out there and she may or may not have Dagwood. We need to find the baby as soon as possible but please do not underestimate Penelope, she is a pit viper and she is completely unhinged. Cheryl, Juniper, and Betty are not safe from her and I will not feel better until we have Dagwood and that crazy bitch is in a cage. We need to search all of the outbuildings for anything that she left behind. Toni, how many of the Poisons are still here?”  
“Six, they are inside. I thought that it would be best to not bring them to find Cheryl,” she left her fears about Cheryl’s mental state unspoken.  
Nodding, Jughead locked eyes with Toni, “Do you think that they will rankle at working with the Serpents a little while longer?”  
Hearing the motorcycles on the main road, Toni rolls here eyes, figuring out Jug’s plan. “Always multitasking Jones,” looking at Betty she squeezed her hand before letting go, nodding to Jughead she runs into the house and rallies her troupes. By the time she returns there are 10 more Serpents in the driveway. Sweetpea nods to her, “Topaz,” she knows it is an olive branch, “Sweet Pea,” she response both hoping that they never need to discuss their almost threesome. 

“Okay guys, we need to search each of the outbuildings on the property. We are looking for any documents or clue to where Penelope could have gone, nothing is too small or too weird. Also, if you see any baby stuff, text Toni or I right away.” Looking at each of them for confirmation of understanding before continuing, “Archie will run point, no one goes anywhere alone, stay in contact by text. Toni, Betty, you are with me. We are going to take the left barn,” looking to Archie he silently communicates with him to make sure that Archie understands. Reading that he does, Jughead follows Betty who has already started to move toward the barn. He can hear Archie dividing the others into teams and assigning them spots to search. As they approach the door, Betty stops and gentle reaches for Toni’s arm to slow her to a stop, “Wait,” breathing slowly, she looks to the shorter girl, “I know that you want to run in there and make sure that she is okay, but I,”   
“What,” Toni asks, trying to not to lose her patience with the blonde.  
“Can I go in first?” She is trying to gather her words, “I, just, I think that if she is in the head space that I think that she is in, let me go in first and see if I can talk her out.”  
Seeing the twitch in Toni’s legs as she twisted the toe of her boot into the ground Betty does not know what her response will be. Finally looking up at the blonde, she nods curtly, “Fine, but you have five minutes.”  
“Thank you,” Betty whispers before she gently opens the door and slips in, trying to make as little noise as possible. No matter how much insanity she had seen in the year she was in no way prepared for what she walked into. The truck that Jughead had seen earlier was parked just inside the door. There was light from a fireplace through another doorway and Betty followed it. Only the Blossoms would have a barn with more amenities than most houses, she thought to herself. Once she walked through the second doorway she realized that this is where Penelope must have been staying because it was fully retrofitted to be a livable space. Walking slowly towards the fire she spotted her cousin. There was an eerie quiet in the space that reminded Betty of that old saying as quiet as the tomb. As she approached Cheryl she realized how just how apt that phrase was. In a wheelchair on the other side of the fireplace was Jason Blossom’s body. His bloated, embalmed, dead for 18 months body. Betty felt her eyes bulge as she freaked out but she repressed a scream the she could feel fighting to escape her throat for the sake of her cousin. Focusing completely on Cheryl, Betty cheated her back to Jason’s corpse and knelt beside the broken girl in front of her. Cheryl was wide eyed and shivering, her knees pulled to her chin as she rocked and bit her thumb. 

Reaching out cautiously, Betty pushed back the red curtain of hair off of Cheryl’s face. The movement not shaking Cheryl until Betty spoke, “Cheryl,” her low gentle, voice cracking Cheryl’s focus on the planked floor as she rocked.   
Blinking slowly, Cheryl let her surroundings filter in. The overwhelming pain that crashed over her found her falling onto Betty’s chest, sobbing with an abandon that she rarely allowed herself. Betty’s shock at Cheryl’s movement showed on her face, luckily her devastated cousin could not see it as she wept. In that moment, Betty had never felt her selfishness more. She knew that she was dogged in her pursuit of most things and that she got so lost in her goal that she lost moral center often in those moments, however there was no excuse for her using Cheryl when she was useful and not checking in with her and supporting her. She was not a means to an end, she was her cousin and it was high damn time that Betty started acting like it. She promised herself in this moment that she would correct her behavior and hold on to the precious little family that she had left. As Cheryl’s sobs turned into broken words, Betty realized the horror of what her cousin had been through at the Farm.  
“He, he won’t talk here” Cheryl’s wide brown eyes broke Betty’s heart as she continued in frustrated desperation, “I found him at the farm when I was looking for proof about the organs and I confronted Edgar. He said it was part of my therapy to talk to my brother, so I could remove my pain. But then I had to run with Juniper and rescue you guys. But Betty,” her eyes plead with her cousin to understand her actions, “I couldn’t leave Jason there. The F.B.I. was coming and I,” she leans back, her eyes wide and terrified, “Betty I couldn’t leave him again. I couldn’t let them take him away again. He would be alone in the ground again. I couldn’t let that happen so I brought him home, where no one would take him from me again.” Shaking her head as she shifted through her experience this morning, “I wanted to talk to him one more time but it doesn’t work, he won’t talk to me. He is gone,” she dissolved back into sobs again. “He is gone Betty.” Her face crumbled again as she put words to her horrific thoughts, “I just didn’t want to be alone again. I know that I am crazy. I know that they are going to lock me up again. My mother was right, I am deviant. She should have killed me.”  
Betty is overcome with bitter guilt at the horrible things that she had done to Cheryl since Jason's death; her selfishness had caused her cousin pain. Pulling the smaller girl into her arms, Betty stroked her hair for a moment before leaning back and taking Cheryl’s face in her hands so that she had to lock eyes with her, “Cheryl, I cannot imagine the pain that you are feeling right now or that you have felt over the past year and a half, but please know that you are not alone. You will never be alone because no matter what, we are family and I will always be here for you. Toni adores you and her love for you is unshakable. I wish that I could change the world for you, that I could give you Jason back, but I can’t. I am so sorry Cheryl, but you need to remember that, even though your brother is gone, his children are still here and they need us. We are all that Juniper and Dagwood have and we have to fight for them now.” Cheryl’s whole body wracked with sobs once more and Betty soothed her as best she could, rubbing her back and rocking with her. “It’s okay Cheryl. Let it out, you are safe and I will not let anyone hurt you. No one is taking you anywhere or locking you up.” Betty choked back her own tears as Cheryl cried, her heart breaking for the girl. “Your mother is a harpy and she was not right about you nor was she right in her treatment of you.” Pulling back a bit she cupped Cheryl’s face in her hands again, “Cheryl you are going to come home with me and we are going to figure out how to rescue our nephew from that bitch, do you understand?” At Cheryl’s nod, she continued, “We have a lot to talk about and a lot to work through and I can only imagine how insane the coming days will be but know one thing, I will always be here for you. I have not been a good friend or a good cousin to you but I want to change that. I need to change that. Okay.”   
She is overwhelmingly relieved when some of the calm focus returns to Cheryl’s eyes as she starts to come back to herself. “Are you ready to help me hunt down your mother and get Dagwood back?” Swallowing thickly Cheryl closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. When her eyes open again, the fire is returning as she nods.  
”Do you think you can walk?” Betty ask.  
After a moment she answers with a weak, “I think so.”  
Betty wraps her arms around the smaller girl and helps guide her to her feet. Betty keeps her arm firmly around Cheryl’s waist and Cheryl curls into her side, still silently crying but overwhelmingly more cognizant that she was 15 minutes ago when Betty first got to her. As they round the truck, Betty sees Jughead and Toni waiting for them just inside the door. Toni nearly leaps forward, “Baby,” she begins but her words are lost when she sees the broken figure of her girlfriend. She is reassured by Betty’s soft half- smile as they exit the barn.  
Toni and Jughead silently fall in line behind the girls, Toni reaches out and frees one of Cheryl’s hands from her grip on Betty holding it in her own so that Cheryl knows that she is there. 

Betty guides them to Cheryl’s car which Toni produces the keys for. Settling Cheryl into the back seat with Toni, Betty takes the keys. Looking at the two for a moment, she lets herself take them in for a moment. The love that they share is almost a tangible aura around them, Toni’s love for Cheryl rolling over the redhead like a healing balm, fortifying her for the battle to come. Smiling softly at the sight before she turns and lets the terror and concern flood her face as she looks at her boyfriend trying to repress the 

“You need to call your dad, Jug,” she whispers, “She,” she looks through the window again as she swallows back her horror, “Edger has been using Jason’s body when he hypnotizes Cheryl. He dug up his body and had it at the farm. When she was hypnotized he would have her talk to the corpse and she brought him here for fear of losing him again. When he didn’t talk to her here, she broke down.”  
The realization of her words hit him like a ice storm, “Oh my God,” she nodded as his face registered all of the horror implied by her words, “I’ll call my dad, I, just, what the fuck,” he is at a loss for words. “Uh huh,” Betty agreed wide eyed.   
“Are you taking her to our house?” He was still processing this new awful information.  
“Yeah, I figured it was better for her to not be here when the police show up and I don’t care what anyone says,” looking over her shoulder at Thistle House, “this place is creepy and while Cheryl loves her Nana, I am not leaving Cheryl or Juniper alone with her if I can help it. Child bride buying bitch.” Just leaving that last comment where it was for now, Jughead pulled out his phone while nodding.   
He knew that they were in for a much longer talk about the shattered pieces of Betty’s family later but for now, he kissed her and continued, “I will be here for a while with the search. Text me if you need anything, okay?” she nodded and tries to center herself as she climbs into the car and begins the short journey back to Elm Street.


	3. War Chief

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mistakes were made by everyone, can they move past it?

As the girls drive away, Jughead makes a phone call that he is dreading for several reasons. He can only imagine how busy his dad is currently with deconstructing the Farm and now he had to call him and remind him of his darkest decisions by making him deal with Jason Blossom’s body once again.   
“Hey Jug, what’s up?” His dad’s voice makes him focus once more.   
“Hey Dad, I know that you are busy at the Sisters but I have a situation at Thistle House that I need help with.” He rubs his eyes as he sits down on the stoup.   
“Thistle House? Are Cheryl and Toni okay?” His voice is genuinely concerned and Jug is reminded once again that his father half raised Toni and the rest of the Serpent kids at the trailer park.   
“Toni is fine, she and Betty just left with Cheryl,” he pauses for a moment and realizes that house guest are probably something that he should have run by his father, “Um Betty took her back to our house, I know I should have asked first but Dad she couldn’t stay here.”   
“Jug, I’m on my way to you now, what happened?”  
“Um, Toni called me earlier and said that she couldn’t find Cheryl. She never came back after the Sisters so she had been trying everyone to see if anyone had seen her,” chuckling he sardonically added, “You know she was desperate if she called me. I saw Cheryl driving into one of the barns this morning when we picked up Juniper.” He digs the toe of his boot into the gravel around the porch, trying to find the words for this, “Dad, Evernever was hypnotizing Cheryl and letting her “talk” to her brother.”

“Seriously?” Jughead can almost hear his father’s head shake. “What the fuck is wrong with this guy? How did he even come up with this shit?”

“Oh it gets worse,” Jug mumbles back. “Um, he made her see her brother by digging up Jason’s body and hypnotizing her to believe that Jason was talking to her.”

The line goes quiet for a moment and Jug only realizes that his father has pulled up when he hears the door to his cruiser slam shut. He stands to meet his dad and allows himself to be pulled into a hug, not realizing how much he needed it until he felt his father’s arms close around him. Pulling back, his dad’s hand stays on his shoulder, “You okay son?”

Grabbing his dad’s wrist where it rest on his shoulder, “Dad, Cheryl, she,” Jughead is still struggling with articulating this mess, “she brought her brother’s body back here. She thought if she brought him home that he would talk to her again. When it didn’t work she just broke.” F.P. shudder at the thought of what that poor girl had been through.

“How did you guys get her out of the barn?” F.P. asked as his son started to guide him to a barn to the left of Thistle House.

“Betty,” he paused at the door, “somehow she convinced Toni to let her go in first and she got Cheryl to talk to her and coaxed her out of the barn and away from Jason.” Resting his arm against the door, still not opening it, “Dad, she was so broken, so desperate for her brother that she was talking to a corpse,” He searched for words to explain, speaking to himself as much as to his father. His dad seems to understand that and silently let his boy work through his thoughts, “Who would do that to another human being? What the fuck is wrong with people? Cult and organ harvesting freakshow aside, how can someone exploit someone else’s pain and violate their trust, their mind, that way. Cheryl never did anything to Evernever and all of this seems so personally targeted. And grave robbing. Jesus,” Looking back, his eyes lock with his father, “Dad we have to bring this bastard down. Now.”

Slapping his son’s should he nods, “Agreed boy,” hesitating for a moment he adds, “But getting Evernever is the easy part. Cheryl is going to need all of you to get through this. Bringing the Farm to justice is not going to erase what was done to her anymore than her father’s death changed his crimes. Cheryl needs professional help and she is going to need a support system around her, Betty too,” he branched the subject that he knows his son may rankle at, “Both of them have been dragged through hell by the people who are supposed to love them and trust me getting through that is going to take time and work. But family does not always mean blood particularly when your blood has betrayed you in the way that theirs has.” Jughead nods, agreeing with his father and understanding that neither girl was likely to like the idea of getting help but they both needed it. With one more squeeze to his shoulder, his dad moved off to make several phone calls.  
Jughead’s thoughts were interrupted by a text message from Sweetpea Dude I think we found something that you should see, calling over his shoulder, “Dad, Sweetpea says they have something, I am going to go check it out,” receiving a nod of affirmation as his dad spoke into his phone, Jug took off to the stable where Sweetpea and Veronica were searching. The expanse of the Blossom estate was astounding when you had to walk it. Arriving to the stables Jug can only hope that there are no more dead bodies in there as he pushes open the door. “Hey Sweetpea, what did you guys find?” he yells into the expanse of the building. “Jesus, you could fit all of Sunnyside Trailer Park in here,” he commented to no one in particular.   
Coming out of the shadows holding several ledger books, the tall Serpent moved towards Jughead.   
“I’m not completely sure but it looks like these are expense ledgers for some sort of business, but nothing is really labeled,” he continues flipping through the pages trying to glean some clue as to the nature of this business and why business papers would be found in the stable. The two young men are joined by Veronica who is holding several binders with legal and financial documents in it.   
“These are papers of incorporation and the establishment of several LLCs but it is all in some sort of shorthand. There are a bunch of other documents over there but everything is a mess like someone tore through there looking for something already.”  
Nodding, Jughead said, “Thank you both, it sounds like these could be important. Box all of the papers up, no matter how useless they seem. We will sort through them in the morning. It’s getting late and I am tired.” Both nodded to him before Veronica asks, “How is Cheryl? Did you guys found her?”  
Pushing his hand through his hair before putting his hat back on he says, “She is back at the house with Betty and Toni. Um, she is not in a good place.”   
Worry was clearly etched across her face as she nodded, understanding that Jughead was uncomfortable saying more for fear of betraying Cheryl’s trust. They make quick work of boxing up all of the files and paperwork. They are almost finished loading the boxes into Veronica's car when the rest of the group joins them.   
“What did you guys find?” Archie asks as he rounds the car and kisses Veronica as a gentle greeting.   
“I’m not really sure yet.” he glances at all of the boxes, “We have a lot of reading and sorting in our future.” Jughead is starting to feel overwhelmed at the task facing them and worried that the documents will be fruitless and that they will be no closer to finding Dagwood or the farm. As the Serpents and Poisons say their goodbyes and disperse he finds his thoughts drifting to Betty and Cheryl and how much they needed this situation solved.   
Breaking in to his thoughts, Archie offers, “Veronica and I can stay over and go through all of this. The more eyes the better.”   
Smiling at the generous nature of his best friend, Jughead nods, “That would be great.”   
Veronica surprises Jughead by reaching out and squeezing his hand, “We’ll pick up dinner and grab a change of clothes and we will be there.”   
Nodding his thanks he climbs onto his bike when his phone dings with a text from Betty Please stop at the store and pick up some baby food and baby cereal, Juniper is hungry. Smiling as he started the bike he shook his head at the strangeness of that statement and how the bizarre had become his normal over the last year. Now as he headed into the grocery store he had to figure out how to buy baby food. Standing in front of the isle of tiny jars he grabbed the cereal and pulled out his phone to google What type of food do 6 month-olds eat because what did the numbers on the jars mean? Once he made his selections based on his research he paid and headed home.   
Entering through the mudroom, Jug is hit by a wall of scent that reminds him how hungry he is. That had been the best part about Betty staying with them--the food! She insisted that she cook for them if they were going to let her stay there for free, even though both he and his dad insisted that she was more than welcome, partly because they both still thought of this house as the Cooper’s house instead of their own. Betty had demanded that everyone ate dinner together each evening and it had done wonders to heal the rifts and scars of the Jones family. Every night they were brought together by the intoxicating smell of her latest creation and they would spend an hour eating, laughing, talking about their days, and just enjoying each other’s company--something they had never done before they moved to Elm Street. While they never said it aloud, they all felt that they owed Betty a debt of gratitude for giving them this seemingly normal but very a powerful practice.   
Dumping his helmet onto the shelf by the door, special made for their helmets, and sliding out of his jacket, hanging it on the hook, Jughead enters the kitchen, seeing Betty chopping vegetables and dumping them into a sizzling pan. Coming up behind her he slides his hands over her hips and around her waist, burying his nose in the hair at the nap of her neck, breathing her in before pressing a kiss to the back of her neck.  
“Mmm,” she moaned quietly, “Jellybean,” she dramatically stage whispers, “I told you to stop doing that! We are going to get caught and just think of the scandal that would be!”  
Laughing into the union of her shoulder and neck he spun her, “Jellybean huh?”  
“Oh, it is you,” she grinned, her wide green eyes reflecting the love that they shared, “You mustn't be mad, we could not deny our love!”   
“Well, I suppose if my sister has to fall in love with one of my friends you are the best one,” he tried to keep a straight face, “I mean that crush on Archie was worrying. He is not big on conversation.”  
Completely losing it they both burst out laughing before moving unison to kiss. The kiss was not just one of welcome but of cleansing; it helped each of them to step away from all of the experiences of the last 48 hours and just be.   
Pressing their foreheads together, eyes still closed, they took a deep breath in unison. Opening their eyes, they each offered the other a small smile of thanks. Unbeknownst to the couple, Toni had just rounded the corner holding Juniper and smiled at the sweet moment. She tried to not interrupt but the baby had other plans, she gave a shriek of protest letting everyone know that she was there and she was hungry. Betty and Jughead both turn towards the noise, once she sees him, Juniper cries out again and makes grabby motions towards Jughead who seems to be her new favorite person. With an almost taunting smile he makes his way toward the table with to retrieve her from Toni.   
“Well hello there Junebug,” he reaches out to take her, “were you good for Auntie Betty and Auntie Toni?  
“She was great,” Betty smiled as she went back to chopping vegetables.   
“Yeah, when she wasn’t being grumpy or crying,” Toni rolled her eyes even though it was clear that she had a deep affection for the baby. Reaching out, he touches Toni’s elbow, asking softly, “How is Cheryl.”   
Looking down, Toni fights her instinct to yank away from him and give him a bitchy answer, “She’s sleeping. Dr. Reader gave her a Xanax so she could get some rest.”  
“Good. You know,” he didn’t know how to say this, “if you need anything,” she nods and the awkward moment is cut off by an impatient squeal from the baby in his arms.   
“Well, clearly she is hungry for some real food,” Betty retrieves a baby spoon from a drawer and hands it to Jug without request as he situates Juniper in the high chair. The ginger haired baby squealing again in excitement at the spoonful of carrots and sweet potatoes. Toni has joined Betty in the kitchen and the two girls work in tandem to finish roasting potatoes and vegetables and putting a chicken in the oven to roast.   
Juniper made her way through the jar baby food with a zeal and pace that Betty had only ever seen in Jughead. She was, however, a much messier eater as evidenced by the orange smears of food in her hair and over much of her clothes and skin.   
“Bet, when do you think that Junebug will be old enough to eat Pop’s burgers?” Jughead asks in all sincerity. Betty looks to Toni and then they both look back at the boy holding the baby, food smears and all, and they both burst out laughing. The girls laugh so loud and so long that they are both struggling to breathe. Looking at the baby, Jughead just shrugs, carrying the baby into the kitchen as he looks on the counters for something to snack on. Pulling herself together, Betty tries to catch her breath as she smacks Jugs hand away from the cookie tray that she has just pulled out of the oven. “You’ll burn yourself. And I don’t think that the twins will be about to eat at Pops until they have teeth at least.”   
He nods, but his eyes meet Toni’s eyes over Betty’s head as the blonde tickles the baby’s belly, giggling with her. Toni gives him a subtle nod, acknowledging that they need to have a discussion.   
“Well since you fed her, I will go give her a bath while dinner cooks,” she starts stripping the baby’s food covered clothes off before taking the baby from her boyfriend. Kissing him she smiles, “But you need to do a load of laundry since you helped make this mess,” she dropped the dirty baby clothes into his now freed hand. Smiling he mutters, “I guess that’s fair,” as she walked toward the stairs. His eyes followed her until she disappears upstairs before turning to Toni, “Do you and Cheryl need anything washed?” He asks in an unusually benign tone for all that they had been through together and apart over the past several months.   
“Um, yeah, let me go grab our stuff,” she answers cautiously, wondering when being in a room with Jughead got this awkward.   
“Okay, just bring everything to the basement, that is where the washer and dryer are,” he doesn’t wait for a response before bounding down the stairs to the basement.   
A few minutes later, Toni makes her way down the stairs, an ominous feeling wrecking her mind, nearly overwhelming her. As she descends the final step, she is struck by the weirdly domestic nature of the Jones basement. It appears to be under construction. Boards of different sizes leaned against one far wall and the wood floor looks very new. Jughead is standing in front of the washing machine separating out clothes for the load. Looking to Toni, he reaches out his hand taking the clothes dropping them in before closing the lid and setting the controls.   
“Redecorating?” Toni nods towards the boards and Jughead offers a tired half laugh, “Of a sort. My Dad and I were remodeling this place to make it into an office but,” he scoffs, “well, but, every fucking thing in the entire world went insane and home improvement has taken a back burner.”   
Toni gives a mirthless chuckle of commiseration, “Yeah.”  
Running his hand through his hair, Jug leans against the dryer. “Look Toni, I know that there is a lot of shit between us and honestly, we have both made a lot of mistakes over the last couple of months, but I think that we need to figure out how to move past it for the sake of the women that we love.”  
“So what is this?” Toni rolled her eyes, trying to look anywhere but at him as she crossed her arms, “Your lame attempt at a parlay? Do you want to tell me about how the Poisons aren’t real?”  
Looking at the floor, he took a breath, “I should have never called the Poisons a vanity project or trivialized your relationship with Cheryl. I was wrong and I apologize.” That stopped Toni’s pacing.  
“Thank you,” she understood that his apology is tough for him but that it is an olive branch. An olive branch that she takes, “I should have never let Cheryl convince me to rob the Pembrooke, or anything else. We were having fun and being stupd but kicking us out,” Toni let the accusation hang.  
“Toni, I never wanted to kick you out, hell I didn’t want to kick Cheryl out, but you guys broke our laws and worse yet, you cost the Serpents a substantial, steady financial stream that we all needed desperately. Dad and I have found at least temporary housing for most of the families but work is still spotty and a lot Serpents are still living in campers by the river.”  
Toni slides her thumbs into her back pockets as she considers his words. He continues, “But, I forgot the most important of our Laws,” Toni’s head shot up, her eyebrows raised, “In unity, there is strength. We have all forgotten that and it has hurt each of us. I don’t just mean the Serpents and the Poisons but Archie and Veronica, hell, my dad even.”  
“Jug, I,” Toni shifts her weight from one foot to the other, “I know that I fucked up big time both with the burglaries and,” she tries to find the right words, “I should not have demanded to be your Queen, but I wanted a chance to be a leader in the only family that I had really known. Your dad has been more of a father to me, to most of us, than any of my supposed guardians. I love leading the Poisons, but I have kept them at arm’s length. I still miss my family but I also could not abandon what Cheryl and I have begun.” There is a sad confusion in her eyes.   
“I don’t want you to leave or disband the Poisons Toni,” he assures, “I want us to join forces.”  
“Um, how is that supposed to work,” she quirks her eyebrow in consternation.  
“You pulled the Serpents and the Poisons together in a couple of hours and commanded a rescue extraction for us to great success,” he began.  
“Um, thank you,” she still unclear of his point.  
“No,” he makes eye contact for the first time, “Thank you. Your effort is the reason Betty, Veronica, Archie and I are still alive and you defeated most of the Gargoyles. What I am offering is this-- I want you to be my war chief. You and Cheryl have done a great job training your members, and that is an area of weakness for me. I am a planner and investigator--something that you and Cheryl do not always have the patience for,” he says it as an observation, not an insult, in the way only family can. “So, I want you, and Cheryl when she is feeling better, to be my Generals, training and commanding the Serpents and The Poisons, under one banner, to reclaim Riverdale. I need your help to save our people and our town from ruin.”  
Closing her eyes, Toni takes a deep breath, her fingers twitching wishing that Cheryl was there to hold her hand and center her. Looking back at her childhood friend, she replies, “I agree with most of what you said but I will not commit to anything without discussing it with Cheryl.”   
Nodding, he replied, “I would never ask you to,” both tabled the subject.   
Toni turns to head back to the stairs when he stops her again, “One more thing,” she nods for him to continue, “We need to find Dagwood, as soon as possible. I know you heard Betty earlier,” sighing, pushed his hair back into his hat again, “She can’t lose anyone else, neither of them can.”  
Shaking her head, Toni replied, “No, they cannot and we need to get that poor baby away from Penelope. That bitch is a pit viper and she will kill anyone who gets in her way, even her grandson.”   
“I completely agree,” he replied, beginning to pace as he talked through the problem, “My dad has an Amber Alert out on him so all highways, trains, airports, and the border are on high alert and the FBI has extended it nationwide.”  
“Okay, so she is limited in her movements, if she has the baby with her particularly,” Toni joined his brain storm, “So logic would dictate that she leave the baby here until the heat is off and she can return to grab him under the radar,” He nods his agreement, continuing, Toni asks, “but where? Was she keeping him in Riverdale before or did she take him out of town before this hunt shit started?”  
“Well, she wasn’t keeping him at Thistle House or the hunting lodge because Betty checked,” he thought about other options, “Dad and the FBI raided all of the Blossom holdings trying to find any clues as to where Penelope would go or where she could hide an infant. I told him to bring everything here and we would help him wade through it all. Archie and Veronica are coming over for dinner and they are going to join us,” walking toward Toni, he caught her eyes, “I invited them to spend the night so that we can pull an all nighter if needed. That was before you called. Do you think that having more people here is going to be overwhelming for Cheryl?”  
The honesty in his voice kinda shocks Toni, his real concern for the redhead that she adored melted part of Toni’s protective ice wall. “Um,” she struggles for words to speak for Cheryl, “like I said earlier, the psychologist that your dad sent over to assess her earlier gave her a sedative. She was still in full panic breakdown and Dr. Reader felt that she needed to allow her body and her mind to relax before she could move through anything that has happened,” wrapping her arms around herself she suddenly looked very young and very scared, “Jug, the doctor said that she is far from okay. Her brother’s death, years of her mother’s abuse, her father’s suicide, and the destruction of her family business, conversion therapy, then a brainwashing cult. Shit, I don’t know how the fuck she has been functioning this long.” Toni tried to blink her tears away unsuccessfully. “I should have listened to Betty,” her arms tighten even more around herself, as if she is holding herself from falling apart, “I should have never let myself get pulled into Evernever’s bullshit and I could have protected her from conversations with her dead brother.”  
Crossing to her, he pulls her into his arms, rubbing her back as she lets herself not be strong for a moment.  
Toni always felt that she had to be the stable one, the pillar still standing while everyone else crumbled. She was terrified when Cheryl disappeared and she her fear had only ratcheted up when they had found her. Every cell in her body wanted to save her girlfriend but she was utterly helpless to do so. Pulling back she sniffled as elegantly as one can after five minutes of ugly crying and wiped her nose on her sleeve. “Sorry,” she chuckled, “I didn’t mean to snot all over you, I just,” she had no clue how to finish that sentence so she just left it hanging. Jughead took a moment before responding, “Toni, it is tough, trying to be the safe port in the chaos for them, I get it. I feel like I have to keep my shit together and never let Betty know when something is wrong. I spent a lot of time trying to hide my problems from her, hell from everyone, because I was afraid of what she would think of me if I broke or that my admitting that I had problems would make her life more difficult. I lost her, twice, because at the time I was trying to protect her from my bullshit- my Dad, the Serpents, the violence that comes with that. But all I did was actually hold her at arm’s length. I wasn’t protecting her, I was leaving her vulnerable. What I realized,” chuckling he buried his hands in his pockets and looked down, “what she informed me,” they both gave a chuckle, “was that there is nothing wrong with being human. We all have baggage, we have shit that overwhelms us. The best way to deal with all of that is to share the burden because sharing it allows you to get a whole new perspective and focus.”   
Toni nods, needing to break the tension, she jest, “Yeah. Also dating a Blossom/Cooper makes everything that we have dealt with seem sane. That is one fucked up family.”  
Laughing with Jughead shakes his head, “That is damn sure.”   
“And we are willingly joining it,” Toni states what they are both thinking.   
“And raising the next generation,” he adds, both of them laughing at the situation.   
Hearing the door at the top of the stairs open, they both look up, “Hey, dinners ready,” Betty calls down the stairs, “And Archie and V are here.”   
He and Toni nod to each other, both knowing that they are on the same page as they enter the dining room for what will be both dinner with their friends and negotiations for the many situations in their lives and their town.


	4. Cherry Pie Parlay

Upstairs everyone had settled around the table. Jughead settles between his sister and Betty who is holding Juniper as the baby fought sleep quietly, snuggled into her aunt’s chest. Beside her was Veronica, ever the picture of elegance, her hand firmly in Archie’s, presenting a unified front. Cheryl sat beside Archie, her fiery hair a contrast to her paliad face. She looked exhausted and subdued in a way that worried everyone. For the two other couples it was eerily reminiscent of her demeanor that day last winter on the river where they had nearly lost her to her pain. All of them carried the guilt of their actions that day. Yes, they had saved her from the immediate danger of the river but they all also left her to her own devices as if the threat was over. While she survived it, she clearly was still suffering. That suffering seemed to lighten as Toni took a seat beside her, kissing her as she took her hand, her soft, “hey baby” said a thousand words of love and support. Looking around once more, Jughead felt himself smile a little at the domestic picture that they created absent the utter insanity that was swirling around them.  
Pouring herself a glass of juice Jellybean asked, “So, how is everything?” Her tone echoed with awkward interest.   
“Um,”Jughead was trying to find the words to express this situation only to be saved by Cheryl’s deadpan voice, “My mother spent the last couple of months convincing the teenage population to poison themselves out of dedication to a board game and then half the town ascended with the local cult and your dad is trying to find them on planet Voltar or whatever.”   
Raising her eyebrows as she nodded, Jellybean replied “Noted.” looking around she continued, “So, if the Principal is off to Evernever-land, do we have school tomorrow?” With that the tension was broken and everyone burst out laughing. The following hour was a reprieve from the utter batshit crazy that had surrounded everyone over the last few days, hell the last few weeks. As Betty rose to collect everyone’s dishes, Archie stood to help her and Cheryl quietly asked if she could put Juniper to bed. Betty was shocked at the request, mostly because Cheryl was asking permission when the baby was niece to them both. The blonde nodded and gently passed Cheryl the dosing child. As soon as Cheryl and Toni disappeared up the stairs Betty put on a pot of coffee and pulled a cherry pie out of the oven.   
Veronica stood to grab the desert plates from the counter and place them at each setting as she chuckled, “Only Betty Cooper would bake a cherry pie for a gangland parley.”   
The blonde quirked her head and paused in her slicing, “do you think that pumpkin would have been more appropriate?”   
Archie popped his head up from the dishwasher that he was loading, “Hey, I like cherry,” he said in a very disgruntled tone. As Toni rejoined them she laughed, “You Northsiders are the weirdest people that I have ever met!”   
Everyone joined her chuckling as coffee was poured and they all settled back in their seats. Looking around, Betty asked Toni, “Is Cheryl coming back down?”  
Her cousin appears as she finishes her question. Sliding into the open seat between her girlfriend and the blonde, Cheryl addresses the group, “I want to thank all of you for what you did for me today. I know that everyone has a lot on their plate and I owe all of you so much, I, um,” Toni takes her hand as she stutters through these words. While no one in the room thinks that she owes them a ‘thank you’ it seems important to Cheryl that she saw these words. “I don’t know how to apologize for the fact that my mother tried to kill all of you and”

“No,” Archie’s voice is strained as he bluntly interrupts the other redhead, an act that results in his girlfriend pinching his thigh in condemnation of what seems to be an attempt to spar with Cheryl in her very visibly fragile state. Placing his hand over hers and looking into Betty’s very concerned eyes, he continues facing his body directly in Cheryl’s eyeline, “I’m sorry to sound rude and interrupt what I am sure was a very carefully thought out apology, but do not apologize to me or anyone else. I do not accept your apology,” and he is being pinched again, “You didn’t tourture the whole town with this Gargoyle bullshit or put a hit out on me, or send me to Juvie, or set up that fucked up relay race of death last night. Honestly, your mother is a horrible, rotted bitch whose death would bring me great pleasure, but Cheryl,” he notices that Betty has slid her hand onto her cousin’s and that they clenching hands so tightly that it looks like they are both holding on for dear life. He tries to soften his face to betry what he knows is raw anger at Penelope Blossom, “Cheryl I want her dead because of what she has done to you. The abuse, the neglect, the fucking conversion tourture convent,” he looks at the others quickly and he knows that they are all on the same page, “Cheryl, we all care about you. We do not blame you for what your mom did any more than I blame Betty for her dad shooting my dad. You saved our lives. Without you and Toni uniting the Serpents and the Poisons to rescue us we would all be dead. That is the action you carry, not your mom’s actions.”  
Tears are steadily rolling down her pale cheeks as she slowly looks at Betty for assurance, then Veronica, then Jughead, before turnring to Toni the two moving as one to press their foreheads together, taking a moment to fortify before opening her eyes and turning to the group nodding, “Okay. I may need to hear that again but okay.”  
“Cheryl,” Betty speaks softly and the room notes her slightly reluctant tone, “Did Toni get to talk to you about Jughead’s proposal to join the Pretty Poisons and the Serpents?”  
Nodding, she wipes the tears from her face as she responds, “We discussed it and I have a few concerns,” everything about her unsure tone juxtaposed her usual flippant confidence, “I want the Poisons to have a choice. I know how much the Serpents mean to Toni, even now,” she squeezes her girlfriend’s hand in silent understanding of a topic they had never directly talked about. Cheryl knew that Toni would never outwardly blame her for taking away the Serpents but Cheryl knew that was exactly what she had done. In a dark, rotted part of her mind she thought that she had done it on purpose. She knew that they were breaking the laws that they had sworn allegiance to with their completely frivolous burglaries and she knew that she was putting everyone else at risk. She even understood that the gang needed the money from Veronica and that breaking into her home and leaving an obvious calling card was just taunting the devil. She had not thought of the ramifications of that source of income being lost. She had not thought about the families that would not be able to pay their bills, the kids that would go hungry because their parents no longer had a way to earn the money to feed them. Those were the problems of other people and she had never cared about the problems of other people-- she was Cheryl Blossom, she didn’t have to worry about other people’s problems because other people didn’t matter, they were beneath her- the phrase echoed through her mind in her mother’s voice.  
Sighing, she continued, “I know what the Serpents mean to me, even if I didn’t show it, being accepted so completely by people who didn’t need or want anything from me was unfamiliar and I destroyed it, like I destroy everything else good in my life. If I have a second chance to fix that, I am taking it. But,” her fingers tightened even more in Toni’s as she met the wide blue eyes of Jughead Jones, “I cannot just slide back into that skin and expect everyone to be okay with it. I need to earn the right to wear the jacket, to be a part of the Serpents again.”  
Jugheads face becomes pensive, he can honestly say that when this conversation started, he did not think that Cheryl Blossom would want to earn her way back in, but she was right, she hurt members of the gang and burned a lot of people who had opened their community to a spoiled rich Northside Princess who had looked down her nose at them her whole life. Nodding, he leaned forward, resting his elbows on the mahogany table, “I agree, you need to earn it because that is the only way that everyone is going to accept it. Let’s get through the more pressing issues and then Betty and I will make a decision about your Prospect status.” The redhead nodded and gave him a small smile. “What other concerns do you have?”  
“The other Poisons; Toni and I will explain the desired role that the Poisons will have, as a warrior fleet, and they will be allowed to choose if they want to join. That process can be left for later though, right now we need to focus.”  
“Agreed,” Betty nodded and stood, walking briskly to the mudroom by the backdoor of the house. She returns pushing in a mobile cork board on wheels that F.P. had been kind enough to bring home from the station. She sat a box of office supplies on the table--note cards, push pins, color coded arrows, and the classic-string, lots of different colors of string.   
“Wow,” Veronica and the rest of the group whispered as they took in all of Bettys Type “A” skills.   
Shrugging, the blonde said, “What? How else are we going to keep this myriad of shit straight?”  
“Good point,” the brunette agreed with a tilt of her head.  
“Okay, normally I would want to focus on all of the individual crisis that we need to deal with but our first priority is finding Dagwood.”  
Cheryl’s face is ashen as she wraps her arms tightly around herself, ”Juniper needs him, she is so sad without her twin,” she said so softly that it was almost as if she was speaking only to herself.   
“Exactly,” Betty reaches over and squeezes Cheryl’s hand as Toni kissed the back of the hand she was holding and everyone nodded that they agreed.   
“Okay,” Veronica leaned forward grabbing a pen, a few note cards, and some push pins, “What do we know for sure about Dagwood?”  
“He has a terrible name?” Archie mumbles under his breath and Jughead can not suppress a chuckle earning him a smack from Betty. Putting his hands up in surrender, he looks to his girlfriend, “What? It’s true.”  
Cheryl saves him further abuse by nodding, “Well it is true. Betty, I know that you love your sister but once she is deprogram we need to convince her to give him a real name, you know one meant for a child and not a plant.” Her grimace sets off a few more chuckles and even Betty has to nod.   
“Wait, his name” Veronica tilted her head as she processed the thought, “His name is important. Betty, you said that when Penelope bartered with Edger for Dagwood that she changed his name to Jason Jr., right?”  
“Yeah, she said that Edger would only let her have one twin so she took ‘Jason, Jr.”  
“Okay,” the brunette leaned forward, “She was also calling Chic Jason right? Dyed his hair red and dressed him up like Jason. Like she thought that he was Jason, or at least she was trying to convince herself that he was Jason. So what if she took baby Jason, Jr. to his ‘father’?”  
“That is terrifyingly possible,” Toni leans forward, “Do you guys know where Chic was staying? I mean he had to be staying somewhere and I am betting that Penelope was footing the bill.”  
“Well, where did Penelope have access to that she could hide Chic and a baby without anyone noticing?” Betty twirled a pen in her hand as she thought, “Cheryl your mom didn’t get any money from your Dad’s will and you said that she was broke last year right?”  
Nodding, the redhead confirmed, “Yes, however mother has always been able to raise funds even if she has to sacrifice her dignity.”  
“Wait,” Jughead piped up, “Aurora, one of your mom’s” he struggled to find the right word “um, dominatrixes? Employees? Said that Penelope sometimes brought her kid Jason into the brothel. If he was playing the Gargoyle King all over town and stopping off at new mommy’s whore house then he cannot have been staying far.”  
“Yeah,” Archie leaned forward, “but guys Chic has been in jail for about eighteen hours, if he had Dagwood we need to find out where he is NOW!”   
“He’s right,” Toni stood, “Okay, Archie, you and I need to go to the jail and see what we can get out of Chic,”  
“Wait, I” Betty interrupted.  
“No,” Archie stands. “Toni and I have the least connection to Chic so he is going to be less thrilled by dicking us around. You are a challenge, a rival, Toni and I are removed enough that he is not going to be successful.”  
After a moment she relents, “Okay, you two go to the jail.”   
“Cheryl can you stay here with Juniper and Jellybean?” The redhead nods, she wants to join the search be she knows that they think that she is not physically or mentally strong enough to do that tonight. Maybe they were right?   
“Okay, Jug and I will go track down Aurora and see if she or any of the others know where Chic stayed or where the baby could be.”   
“Um, actually Cheryl, can you go with Betty? I have one more lead that I would like to check out and Veronica’s language skills will be useful.” The redhead nods ‘Of course”, but Betty’s eyes catch his. “I just want to check that Centerville flophouse we found Chic in. If Penelope wanted him to blend in and not be noticed,” he left his conclusion hanging.  
“Yeah, you’re right,” the blonde admitted as he gave her a quick kiss.   
“Don’t take any undue risk,” Betty squeezed his hand.  
“He won’t B, I’ve got his back,” Veronica assured her best friend throwing a wink to lighten the mood before moving to kiss her own boyfriend goodbye. As Toni kisses her, Cheryl feels like she is focused in a way that she had not been in a long time.   
“Cher, are you sure you,” Betty’s concerned words were stopped by her cousin, “for this, I’m fine. Plus even if it is a pretty long shot, we have to find our boy. Jellybean can handle a sleeping Juniper by herself for an hour.”   
Looking at each other for a moment, everyone nods and moves their separate ways each praying that they did not come home empty handed.

As they settle in Veronica’s car, Jughead cannot quite get comfortable. It was weird but somehow over the past few months he had grown to be much more comfortable on his bike than he was in a car--particularly this polished symbol of wealth and power that Veronica drove. It took him a mile and a half to understand that Veronica was not going to start this conversation, “So, with both of your parents in jail, what is your plan for the business?”  
Without taking her eyes off the road Veronica sighed before responding, “I honestly have no idea Jughead.” Sparing him a glace, she continued, “The vigs are due to be collected in a few days but I just,” she took another deep breath to stop herself from crying, Jesus when did I become a crier she thought to herself. “I don’t want to become my father. I don’t want to destroy people’s lives for my own gain. Honestly, I don’t even know if I can, I mean clearly my dad is still calling all of the shots from the inside, he has enough power to turn my mother in to the FBI and I am sure that he is working on a way to get out. He has men out here and I am his number one target.”  
Jughead nodded along with her points knowing that she needed to get this out before they could talk solutions.   
For some reason Veronica felt herself purging all of this mess to Jughead, someone that she had never considered herself particularly close to. Yes they were in the same friend group but they weren’t really friends. But he was the only other person who loved Archie and Betty as much as her and they were the root of her concern. “I let Archie get involved in the shit show that is my relationship with my father once. I thought that I could protect him, that Daddy loved me enough to protect him, and he almost died because of it. He went to prison because of it. Jug, I can’t drag him back into this again.”   
He was quiet for a moment, considering the best way to respond, “I understand your thought process,” he took a breath, “But, and trust me when I say that this is the most difficult lesson that I have ever learned, it is not your decision.”   
“But,” she started and he cut her off, “No, I almost destroyed my relationship with Betty because I thought that I needed to protect her from this- from the Serpents and the lifestyle that I had spent a lot of time trying to hide. No one, not even Archie, knew that my Dad was a Serpent, much less that he was the King. I was so afraid that people on the Northside, the people who I wanted to be like because they didn’t have alcoholic parents who carried mystery goods to mystery people, who fought and used drugs, and who came home covered in blood that was not their own too often.”  
Looking at him again, she nodded, “Yeah, even as a rich society bitch, I never wanted people to know where the money for the Prada came from.”  
“I tried to keep Betty out.” he continued, “and then she ended up pole dancing in her underwear in front of my father and a bunch of dirty old men,” his disgruntled tone made Veronica barked out a laugh that would have embarrassed her if it had not been so needed, he chuckled with her,   
“Yeah, I am kind of sorry I missed that, if for nothing else because I would have loved to see her mother’s reaction.”  
Unable to repress a shudder, Jughead continued, “I still don’t know how I did not end up skinned by Alice Smith for that but I am grateful that she has never brought it up. Honestly, I am not sure that I have ever been more angry or more powerless than I was in that moment, but later she told me that it wasn’t my choice. It took me weeks to catch up with her but she was right. She usually is I am coming to know,” chuckling again Veronica nods as she turns towards the seedy side of Centerville that Jughead is directing to, “You and I come from very different backgrounds but from what I can see the difference between organized crime and 1% bikers is mostly cosmetic. And if we are going to save Riverdale from your father or whoever is going to show up to try to take over in his absence we are going to have to work together.”  
Considering his words, she nods, “I agree, but we need some clear cut roles and guidelines,” looking at him again, “And everyone needs to be on the same page. Everyone has the choice to join this fight or not and how far they go. At the end of the day we are talking about a criminal enterprise and Daddy clearly has a Fed in his pocket to pull of this mess with my mom.”  
“Agreed, there is only so much my Dad can get but I will see if the FBI has dropped any clues about their case.”   
They both agreed as they pulled into the parking lot of the “extended stay motel”.   
Looking at the visage and back to Jughead, Veronica sneared, “Charming.”   
Chuckling, he put his hand on the small of her back to guide her around a junkie passed out on the broken, concrete steps, “What, no flop houses on Park Ave?”  
“Not the part I lived on,” she muttered as they approached the glass encased clerk.  
“Twenty for a single,” she muttered as the popped her gum and stared at her phone.  
“Actually,” Veronica’s tone brought the bored girls eyes up as if she could smell money rolling off the brunette, “I just need a key to,” looking back a Jughead, he supplied the number, “Room 231.”  
“Wel-” the clerk started only to be interrupted but Veronica, “Oh I understand that there is a key copy fee,” her voice dripped sweetness as she slide two one hundred dollar bills through the slot in the glass.  
“Here,” the clerk barked, pocketing the money as she slides the backup key to Chic’s room through the slot.   
They quickly make their way up the stairs, Veronica trying desperately to not touch anything on the two flights of stairs. Exiting the stairwell they are met with banging and screams in Spanish. Moving quickly towards the door that Jughead knew Chic once lived in he leaves Veronica to speak to the woman screaming outside of the door.   
Her hand wrapping around his elbow stops him, “She said that there was a baby crying for hours but then he stopped crying a while ago and no one has gone in or out of the apartment.” Veronica’s wide eyes held enough fear for them both as he turned the lock and pushed the door open.   
“Call Betty, have her and Cheryl meet us at the ER,” his voice was soft and controlled as he tried to prepare himself for the worst scenario. The room was dark and smelled of sour milk and dirty diapers. Finding a light switch, he flipped it to reveal a small, dirty room with few furnishings. In the middle of the mattress Dagwood was laying lethargically in nothing but a diaper that had clearly been on him for too long. In the background Jughead could hear Veronica on the phone as he breathes a sigh of gratitude that the tiny boy is still breathing. Moving forward on autopilot Jughead scanned the room for diapers, finding them he grabs a few and the wipes. Quickly cleaning the baby up as much as possible he realizes that he has a horrible diaper rash that is bleeding in spots. Grimacing he wraps the baby in the only blanket that he can find and holds him close moving past Veronica he runs back to the car knowing that she is following. She slides into the car, cranking it and putting it in gear she looks to the baby in is arms, “Is he,”  
“He is breathing and conscious but we need to get him to the hospital.” Nodding she slides into fifth and suddenly Jughead is grateful for this gilded cage of a car as is glides over the streets at a breakneck speed.


	5. Ours

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I have not watched the new season yet and I don't know if I am going to until this is done so please don't spoil anything. Please let me know if you like this! Thanks for reading!

“Betty is calling your dad to meet us at the hospital so there shouldn’t be any questions,” she offered and he nodded, afraid to look away from the soft rise and fall of the baby’s chest. As they skid into the drop off in front of the ER Jughead is out of the car before it is full stopped. Veronica quickly finds a parking space and runs through the door a few moments later.   
A medical team has already surrounded Jughead who reluctantly lays the boy on a gurney and watches helplessly at the door as they lead him away. Betty standing just behind him, her hand firmly in his as they both watch the doors swing shut powerless to control what was happening to the baby that each of them loved. Cheryl is just to the left of the couple, her arms wrapped around herself. Her whole body trembling in fear as Betty’s hand slides into hers grounding her. 

Someone must have let Archie and Toni know because they arrived with F.P. a few minutes later, Toni running to Cheryl, holding her as the redhead fell to pieces, sobbing her fears into Toni’s chest. As Archie approached her, she saw Jughead’s dad pull him into a hug, comforting his obviously upset son. It was in that moment that she understood that through everything, her father had never loved her in the way that Jughead’s father loved his children. She could never remember a time that her father had comforted her in public or in private. She wasn’t sure what to do with that information but she knew that it was a turning point.   
Archie guided her over to the waiting area that the Sheriff was directing the others to and they all settled in the horrible plastic chairs that they had all become far too familiar with over the past year.   
The Sheriff sat beside his son and leaned forward to speak to them all, “What happened?”  
“Um, we knew that Penelope had taken Dagwood from the farm and we knew that it was unlikely that she would try to cross the border with him so we decided to divide and conquer the possible places that Chic would have him.” Archie explained.  
“I figured out that much, where was he?” Jughead stood and walked away from the group leaving Veronica to explain the situation to the Sheriff and the others. Archie stood and followed Jughead, nodding to the door knowing that his best friend needed to hit something and it was less likely to get him arrested in the parking lot.   
As soon as they had cleared the doors Jughead spun and punched one of the columns in front of the hospital, cracking the stucco, “I’m going to kill that son of a bitch!” He growled as he began pacing. “Who the fuck does that to a baby. He just left him. Alone, Archie. When we found him he couldn’t even cry.” Archie stood with his hands in his pockets and listened quietly as his best friend yelled his way through this. He knew that he would have to hold it together and be calm for Betty but he also knew that abandoned children where a trigger for Jughead beyond just basic human outrage. “I should have crushed his fucking skull when I had a chance,” the Serpent's hands clenched into fists again and Archie quietly watches as Jughead gears up to punch something else before the night was pierced by the wailing of an infant. Both boys turned to see a bemused Jellybean and a very bewildered looking Deputy moving towards them, the cop carrying the pinkest carseat any of them had ever seen.   
“I told him not to wake her up,” Jellybean deadpanned as she walked past her brother, “Dad sent him to bring us here. She hasn’t stopped crying since he woke her up and put her in that thing. She’s probably upset that it is so ugly.” With that the girl disappeared into the ER. Jughead’s rage was sated as he took the carseat from the cop and sat it on the half wall beside them so he could retrieve the upset little girl. “Hey there, Junebug,” his voice was calm, completely juxtaposed to just moments earlier, “What has got you so upset babygirl,” she quieted to a whimper as she was settled in his arms, understanding that she was safe now with her favorite person. Looking to his best friend he nodded his thanks before making his way into the hospital to see if he could reunite the twins.   
The Deputy seemed unsure how to proceed, “Um,” he looked toward the carseat and back at the redhead, “I will take the carseat,” Archie told him and followed him back to his cruiser where he retrieved the carseat base for the pink seat that he had brought Juniper in and a brand new blue carseat for her brother. He was glad that Sherriff Jones had thought ahead because he didn’t know how else they were going to get the twins home.   
Jughead holds the tiny redheaded girl inside his jacket, close to his heart, to keep her warm even after they are safely in the hospital. As he makes his way towards the girls he sees his father talking to a doctor in hushed tones. Betty looks over her shoulder as if she knew he was walking towards her, her hand reaching out to him is like a sirens call and he rushes to meet her careful to not disturb the baby in his arms. “He is stable,” she whispers as she pulls him to her, ducking her head to kiss the baby’s head as soon as he is close enough. “Oh thank God she is here. Hey baby girl” she whispers against the baby’s head as she breathes in her perfect baby smell. The little girl greets her aunt with coos. Looking up to him she takes a step back so that Cheryl can slip between them and run her own hand over the baby’s head letting her know that she was there and that they would all keep her safe, she is rewarded with slow, sleepy blinks and a sweet smile.   
Looking between her cousin and her boyfriend Betty whispers, “We can go see him now.”   
At Jughead’s relieved smile she turns and takes Cheryl’s hand leading them all through the doors as they follow the nurse’s directions, both Jughead and Toni falling in line behind their girls. Once they arrive at a small room they all freeze for a moment, scared of what they will see. A tall, middle aged blonde nurse startles them all when she opens the door, “Oh,” she greets them all with a smile, “Well you must be this little one’s family,” she ushers them in, looking to Betty she squeezes her arm, “I guess we know that this handsome little guy looks like his mom! He is just your double honey,” she moves on before anyone can correct her, “I must say he is very lucky that the police got him to the hospital when they did, he is extremely dehydrated and was in the early stages of shock. We are pumping him with fluids and he has an infection in the lesions on his bottom but the fever has broken and he is responding well to iv fluids. The doctor will be in to see you in a few minutes.” She goes to move out of the room, the teens unable to do much more than nod, however Cheryl stops her asking, “Wait, I, I know that he is very sick but he is a twin,” she nods toward the little girl in Jughead’s arms, “can we put them together? I mean is it safe?”  
Taking in the group, the nurse seems to understand that they have been through a great deal of trauma and, while she does not know the entire story of what happened to her little charge, she knows that these kids did not hurt him. Smiling sadly, she offers, “Well you really should check with the doctor about removing the iv port before you put them together but right now all of you being with him, talking to him is the best thing for him.”  
Nodding once more she leaves the room and the four teenagers all stare helplessly at the tiny, still child in the center of the room. Moving closer Betty circles the institutional looking crib, sliding the metal side down and running her finger down the inside of her nephew’s wrist, her finger settling in his palm. His tiny fingers weakly closes around her finger, bringing tears to her eyes. Jughead watches helplessly as Betty fights a complete breakdown.   
Cheryl moves almost in unison with her cousin stepping to the closer side of the crib, also lowering the side and leaning over to lightly run her fingers over baby, as if she is afraid that her touch will hurt him. Toni has to swallow back tears at the sight of her girlfriend’s fear that she would hurt him. The idea that the beautiful, amazing, passionate woman who had changed her world so completely could ever believe that her love for this child, this tiny person who was as just as much a part of Cheryl as he was a part of Betty, maybe even more because Cheryl and Jason were twins, the fact that she thought her love could hurt him broke Toni’s heart. She stumbles forward and wraps her arm around Cheryl’s hip letting the redhead know that she is there.   
As the baby turns his head toward Cheryl’s touch and opens his eyes for the first time neither of them can fight tears. His wide green eyes, so similar to Betty’s that it is clear why the nurse assumed that the blonde was his mother, open and lock with Cheryl’s own wide brown eyes,”Oh there you are sweetboy,” she smiled wider than she had in days, as the boy responded to her voice and touch, “hey baby, hey angel.”   
The moment is broken by a gasp from the other side of the crib as the iv in the baby’s scalp became very visible to Betty when he moved to look at Cheryl. The blonde’s hands clap over her mouth as her knees buckle. Jughead reaches for her but does not make it around the hospital cot before her knees hit the tile floor. Her broken sobs fill the room for a moment before she opens her eyes again, “Oh God,” she cries, “I’m so sorry,” her fingers rest on his belly, “I’m so sorry baby boy,” Cheryl’s fingers meet her own encouraging Betty to meet her eyes, “It’s not your fault Betty,” there is a certainty in Cheryl’s voice that had not been there since the farm.   
As Cheryl takes her hand Betty is filled with a rage that she did not know that she could feel towards her own sister. Tears still falling she nods towards her cousin, “No, it’s Polly’s fault,” she sniffs, “I never thought that my sister,”another sob, “I, she let that man split them up, she let him give her son away, this,” she looks toward the line in her nephew’s head, “this is her fault. She did this,” her rage was clear in her entire body. Her tears, her eyes, her whole body shook with the emotion flowing through her.   
Snapping her eyes to Jughead and then to Cheryl she struggles for control, “She doesn’t get a chance to do this again,” her eyes focus on the baby in Jughead’s arms and she seems to settle a minute amount before rubbing her free thumb over her nephew’s forehead and down his nose, his eyes blinking slowly at her, “she doesn’t get them back.” Jughead rest a hand of support between her shoulders as Toni shows her support for whatever may come with the care of the twins by rubbing her fingers along the soft exposed skin of Cheryl’s hip.  
“They are ours now Cheryl. We have to keep them safe, no matter what and no matter who from.” The redhead nods her agreement, squeezing Betty’s fingers she adds, “They are ours,” she whispers the words like a prayer, “We will protect them. Betty,” she makes the blonde match her eyes, “we will, we will protect them always. Nothing about this will be easy but,” her eyes flash to Jughead who nods to her, reluctantly shifting the little girl nearly sleeping on his chest to lay her on the cot beside her brother. The twins hands reach for each other, their arms tangling in a manner nearly reminiscent of Cheryl and Betty’s hands still tangled over both of the children. “They are ours,” looking to Toni and then to Jughead she adds, “you two,” looking at Toni, she continues “I am not going to speak for either of you but these children and Betty and I are a package deal.”  
Laughing softly, Toni takes Cheryl’s face in her hands, “Baby, I am so glad that you caught up.” She smiles as she presses a kiss onto her plump lips, sealing her unspoken promise.  
Kneeling beside his girlfriend, Jughead presses a kiss into her temple. “Yeah, we already figured that out. And, just for the record, I am totally on board, they are ours.”   
“Yep, ours,” Toni nods, sliding her hand over Cheryl and Betty’s hands, Jughead’s hand joining hers, “Ours.”   
Toni adds, “Now please can we change their names,” causing everyone to laugh and the tension ease.  
“Yeah, I can’t even think of him as Dagwood, what the hell is a dagwood?” Betty admits, the relief of the tension in the room is overwhelmingly welcome. All four of them relax their hands settling them on the twins as the babies drift to sleep. Smiling at the little boy, she offers, “But, Jason isn’t bad at all.”  
Nodding Cheryl sends her a sad smile, “Jason Cooper Blossom has a ring to it,” she whispers before the door opens again and the doctor enters the room.  
“Hi everyone,” he looked around at the room, seeing four children and two infants, the worry and sorrow leaching from each of them was heartbreaking. “It looks like this little fellow is very loved,” he offers, feeling like he needs to offer these kids some kind of positivity.  
Both Betty and Cheryl offer a grateful smile, the blonde saying, “he really is. How is he doing?”  
“Well, he was very dehydrated when he came in and he has a skin infection from the lesions on his buttocks and upper thighs,” watching the horror bloom on the faces of both young women. Turning to the young man in the room he asks, “The Sheriff said that you are the one who found him and brought him in?”   
Nodding, the boy confirmed, “Yes sir, I figured out were he was taken and I brought him straight here.”  
“It is good that you did, you saved his life,” the young man nodding slightly awkwardly, clearly unsure about the praise in such a horrible situation, “we are rehydrating him through the iv. I know it looks brutal but we could not get the veins in his hands and feet to perk for the iv. It isn’t painful. The iv is also the best way to get the antibiotics into him. He is responding very well but we are going to need to keep him tonight for monitoring. If his fever is gone and he has a few wet diapers then we will reassess and he may be able to go home.”  
“Um, doctor,” Betty ask, “they are twins,”she explains as she continues to trace her finger over each baby’s brow, “is it okay for us to keep her here with him?”  
“His vitals have all improved greatly in the past hour,” he smiles at the picture that they make together, “I would say that the only responsible medical advice I could give would be to keep them together.”  
“Thank you,” the redheaded teen spoke for the first time.  
Offering a kind smile he says, “Of course. I assume you will be with him tonight. If he has a diaper change or if you notice any change that worries you please get one of the nurses. If he wakes up and is hungry ask the nurses to bring you a bottle so that we can monitor his intake and output. Any questions?”  
Each teen looked at each other before shaking their heads at the doctor, “Thank you so much,” Jughead steps forward and shakes his hand. The doctor smiles once more and leaves the new family to start the healing process.   
Almost in unison they breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh thank God,” Betty drops her head to the bed beside the babies. She reaches her hand up and squeezes Jughead’ s hand, turning her head to him, “And thank you. If you hadn’t figured out where Chic had him we could have lost him.”   
“Yes Jughead, thank you,” Cheryl chimed in.   
“I am just glad we got to him,” kneeling beside his girlfriend he reaches out and lets the little boy grab his finger, “I feel so guilty that we slept and ate dinner while he was scared, hungry, and alone,” looking to each of the women in the room he continued, “You’re right, we have to protect them better. We have to make sure nothing like this happens again.”   
“Okay,” Toni steps forward, “I am going to run home and get a change of clothes for us, Betty do you want me to bring you one as well?”  
“Um, actually I was going to go grab food for everyone and give my dad a statement, I can pick up some clothes for her if that is okay,” his girlfriend nods and he and Toni exit the room, leaving the newly declared mothers and the twins together. Before they exit the pediatrics ward, Jughead takes Toni’s arm stopping her in the hall, “Okay Topaz, how are you doing with all of this?”  
Chuckling at Jughead’s incessant need to analyze other people’s feelings.”With what part of this?”  
“With being a stepmom? Mom?” tilting his head considering the language, “I guess we need to figure out what we are going to be called,” he muttered more to himself than to her.  
“We’ll figure it all out, we always do,” she smiled, “I love Cheryl and like she said, the twins are a package deal so I love them too.”  
“Yeah, I get that. Just know that I am here if you ever need a sounding board.”  
“Thanks Jones,” she smiled and bumped him with her shoulder as they made their way the rest of the way down the hall. Spotting his dad and Archie and Veronica he nods his goodbye to Toni and walks over to them.   
“Hey guys, thanks for staying,” Veronica’s tearstained face betrayed her exquisitely dressed cool facade.  
“How is he?” She asked tentatively, her horror at the state that they have found the baby in was clear.   
“Um, he is dehydrated and he has an infection on his skin so they have him on an iv and antibiotics. The doctor thinks that he will be fine. We may even get to take him home tomorrow if he keeps improving.”  
“Oh gracias a Dios,” she muttered as she crossed herself.”Can I,” she looks towards the door.  
“Yeah, Betty and Cheryl are in there, room 541.”  
Looking to his dad he yawns, “I am going to run home and get us some clothes and the stop by Pops and grab some food. We are going to stay the night with him.”  
His dad pulls him into a hug, “I’ll drive you.”  
Nodding he thanks Archie for everything before following his father to his cruiser. 

For the first few minutes of the ride both men are quiet, processing the day. FP knew that his son needed to talk but he knew that Jug needed to find the words at his own pace. Taking a deep breath, Jughead spoke low and clear, his eye firmly focused out at the dark road in front of them. “Dad, you know that I can’t leave her to do this on her own, right?”  
“Yeah, I know son.”  
“Dad, he just left that baby in that filthy apartment by himself for God knows how long. He was so weak that he couldn’t even cry when I picked him up. The neighbor told Veronica that he screamed for hours needing someone to help him and then he just stopped crying completely. She thought that he was dead, for a minute, so did I.” Swallowing back emotion, he continues, “Dad, I’ve never wanted to kill anyone until tonight. If I could get my hands on Chic or Polly right now,” he let the threat hang heavily between them. “Dad, Betty and Cheryl are not going to let Polly near the babies again. I am all in with them.” He lets the decision rest in the air for his father to process.   
“You want to be a father to two children that are not your blood at 16?” F.P.’s voice is questioning but not condescending or judgmental.   
“Yes, Dad. They are Betty’s blood and that is enough for me.”  
Nodding as they pulled into the driveway, F.P. exited the car, rounding it he met his son halfway and pulled him into his arms, hugging him, “Son, I don’t think that I have ever been more proud of you or of Betty. Anything that you need-- I will move heaven and Earth to support you both. This is a huge decision and it is going to change everything in your life but I am damn proud that you are willing to make that sacrifice to protect those babies. They did nothing to deserve the hell that they have been through in their short lives. They are family and we protect family.”  
“Thank you Dad, just, thank you for all of this” Jughead hides the tears in his eyes by ducking his head as the two men walk inside. Jughead runs up the stairs and quickly grabs a change of clothes for himself and Betty and grabs a few outfits for each of the twins and their diaper bag, stocking it fully. Calling Pops to put in an order, as he runs downstairs to pack formula and a few bottles knowing that the hospital would not be providing food for Juniper as well. Blinking the exhaustion from his eyes, he yells a goodnight to his Dad who makes his way downstairs after a quick shower.   
“Wait,” his Dad jogged into the living room to retrieve a box of documents. “Here, I don’t know how much sleep any of you will be getting but Betty asked me to grab all of the pieces of paper in her mother’s room. I don’t know if you guys can make any sense of it but you have a better chance than I do.”   
“Okay,” he nods, cut off by a knock on the door. Looking to his dad for an explanation, the Sheriff answer the door to reveal a deputy.   
“Jughead, Collins is going to take your official statement about tonight while he drives you back to the hospital. You are way too tired to be driving.”  
Nodding he hugs his dad again and tells him to get some sleep. The ride back is quick but recounting the night again is emotionally trying. By the time they are back at the hospital Jughead is grateful for the cold air in his face on his walk back to the building. As he made his way to the elevators he noticed a tall man in a suit watching him. Pivoting from the doors he contemplates confronting the man but the doors dinged and opened and he stepped onto the lift, knowing that Juniper would be hungry and feeding her was way more important than confronting some rich asshole who was staring at the serpent on his back. He was also so tired that he honestly didn’t know if the man was actually watching him or if he was just becoming paranoid because of the exhaustion. As the doors slide closed he lets his head drop back to the wall behind him, reflecting on everything that had happened over the last few days, months maybe. He needed sleep, he needed to write to get some of this out, and above all, he needed his family. Scoffing, he picked his head up,thinking of his ever expanding family, the thought of them made him smile and he was washed with a sense of hope that this would all work out.


	6. Hateful Healthcare

Upon his arrival carrying an overnight bag, diaper bag, a box of food from Pop’s, and a box of Alice Cooper’s scribblings, he is greeted by a sound he never thought he would be so happy to hear--screaming babies. Two screaming, hungry babies.   
“Oh thank goodness,” Cheryl spins towards him as she tries to calm down Juniper, “She is hungry and the bitchy nurse can’t give us another bottle without an order,” she rolls her eyes in a way that makes Jughead think that Cheryl had given the nurse a few orders of her own. While Cheryl explained, Toni jumped into action taking the baby bag from Jughead and setting about making the baby girl a bottle as he found a place to sit everything else in his hands. Cheryl huffed, “Oh here,” stepping into Jughead’s personal space, his hands are quickly refilled with much more precious cargo, “you are the only one she seems to want when she is this upset.” The little girl gives a dramatic huff and lets her head drop against his chest, her cries started to calm as he rubs her tiny back, her brow crinkling with her dissatisfaction at not being fed. Jughead can not suppress a smile at just how much she looks like Cheryl when she does that. As Juniper’s cries settle, all four of them are drawn to the crib as the second cry becomes much stronger.   
Ignoring the night nurse’s orders Betty lifts the boy to her chest, careful to not jar the IV in his scalp as she gently swayed with him, singing softly to calm him. Smiling at his girl as he bounced Juniper he can see a weight lift off of her shoulders with baby JayJay’s cries of life. Taking the bottle from Toni muttering, “Thanks,” he barely gets the nipple to her mouth before Juniper latches on and starts eating like she has been starved for days. Toni chuckles, rubbing the baby’s head and pressing a kiss to her hairline. JayJay has settled a bit in Betty’s arms but he is still making his hunger known, his tiny fist gripping her shirt. A nurse that Jughead had not seen before enters the room, her gray hair pulled into a bun so tight that it seems to pull the skin on her temples taunte. She cast an annoyed glance around the room at the teens and the babies, pausing to sneer at Cheryl when Toni slide her fingers between the redhead’s own. Cheryl responds by kissing the back of her girlfriend’s hand and ignoring the woman’s gaze. Before any of them can comment on her judgemental look at the young couple she turns her scorn to Betty.   
Stepping towards the blonde, who is still swaying with her boy, rubbing his back and reassuring him that he is safe. Betty wordlessly reaches for the bottle in the nurse’s hand, not breaking eye contact with the baby or stopping the soft lullaby that seems to have transfixed him. When the nurse didn’t put the bottle in her hand she looked up at her. The nurse replied with a sharp, “I told you not to disturb him.”  
“He was crying and clearly upset. I was very careful to not disturb the IV but I am not going to ignore his cries,” Betty’s tone is terse but she is trying to stay civil.   
“But you will ignore medical advice, from someone who actually knows what they are doing?” The nurse’s tone is condescending and cold.  
“Excuse me,” Toni steps forward, her hand still firmly in Cheryl’s.  
“You heard me,” the nurse responded, turning her gaze on the purple haired beauty, “Not that I can figure out why you are here or why you think you get a say in the care of these children. This infant is very sick and clearly none of you children know how to properly care for him,” she is cut off by Cheryl’s offended, “You don’t know anything about any of us or about these babies.”  
“I know that he was so dehydrated that he was in shock and that it had been so long since someone had changed his diaper that his own urine had burned through his skin and it was infected. This is why children should not be allowed to breed.” Looking at Toni and Cheryl’s joined hands, “Clearly you didn’t give birth to these babies so why are you even here,” Jughead notices the tears filling Cheryl’s eyes as he crosses the room and plops Juniper into Cheryl’s arms, the redhead’s arms instinctively closing around the baby and her bottle.   
“Fuck you lady,” Betty’s tight control is slipping enough that she does not notice her boyfriend move, “She is their mother and just because your world view is limited doesn’t mean that these childen are not loved and properly cared for.” Sensing Betty’s distress, JayJay starts to cry again in earnest. Jughead grabs the bottle from the nurse in her shock at Betty’s response handing the bottle to his girlfriend before spinning on the nurse, “I need to speak to you and your supervisor in the hall.”  
“I,” she started only to be cut off by Jug grabbing her arm and pulling her out of the door, the sound of the crying baby echoing after them as the door swings shut.  
“Get your hands off of me you delinquent,” she yanked her arm out of his loose grip.   
“Get your supervisor,” he demands.  
“How dare you,” her response is cut off by another nurse, this one a brunette in her late thirties.   
“Hester, what is going on here?” The lady asks as she joins them.   
“Are you the supervisor on shift tonight?”   
“Yes, I am,” she looks to the young Serpent, “My name is Gloria. How can I help?”  
“ Hi Gloria, I am Jughead Jones and we are very concerned about the care that our boy is receiving,” he began, taking a breath trying his best to control his temper, he continues, “We have twins, Juniper and Jason, but Jason is here because he is very ill. This nurse refused to provide a bottle for Juniper when both of the babies were hungry because there was not a doctor’s order. I am trying to be understanding about this because I do understand that you are all following orders but ethically, letting a hungry baby scream should rankle with everyone. However, holding the ordered bottle just out of reach from a sick child so that she can barate the child’s parents about her opinions about them is downright unprofessional,” Gloria’s face registers shock at that reveal but she remained quiet to let him finish. Before he does, he hears crying again. Looking over his shoulder, he sees Cheryl walk towards him carrying his Junebug. Reaching for the baby, the tiny redhead grabs at him as her older doppelganger closes in on the group. Settling her against his chest, she is lulled into silence as he rubs her back.   
After a few moments, Jughead looks to Cheryl, “Cheryl this is Gloria, the shift supervisor. I was just catching her up on our treatment tonight. I told her that the twins were hungry but they would not provide a bottle for Juniper.”   
Offering a polite smile, Cheryl picked up the discussion, “When we asked about getting a bottle, and paying for it of course, because we did not want her to have to wait until Jughead got back with her supplies, this nurse was rude and dismissive. Then getting Jason’s bottle took her nearly twenty minutes. He is very weak and should not have to spend what little energy he has crying because he is starving. Once she finally returned she all but yelled at his mother for picking him up and comforting him in an attempt to prevent him exhausting himself or losing the positive progression that we have seen because we were waiting on a measured bottle. Then she refused to hand the bottle over so that she could tell us how we should not be allowed to breed.” Cheryl clasps her hands together, her placid countenance reflecting none of the rage that was bubbling just beneath the surface. 

With an annoyed sigh, the nurse rebutted, “I told both of them not to move him because he has an IV. When I came on shift they had that other baby laying in the cot with him. Obviously none of them are prepared to care for those children! I have already contacted CPS,”  
“You bitch!” “You what?” Jughead and Cheryl shouted at the same time.   
“Of course I contacted CPS,” she crossed her arms in a gesture of superiority, “This is a clear abuse case and they should have been contacted the moment that he was brought in. Who ever his actual parents are,” she sneered again at Cheryl, “need to be dealt with by the police and those babies should be given to someone capable of raising them.”  
Gloria started to speak but Jughead beat her to it, ”You narrow minded bitch, do you have any idea why we are here? Jason was kidnapped by a violent criminal and when I found him he had been alone for over a day. I brought him straight here because he needed medical care. If you are concerned about the investigation, feel free to contact the Sheriff. I’m sure my dad would be thrilled to discuss the care of his grandchildren with your hateful ass.”  
“Your father is the Sheriff,” her tone was condescending as she looked pointedly at the serpent jacket draped across his shoulders.   
“Yes, he is,” his tone left no room for argument, “Furthermore,” Cheryl chuckled to herself as she crossed her arms over her chest leave it to Jones to make an argument with a bigot into a formal essay. ”Your dismissive comments about Jason’s “real parents,” are racist and homophobic. Your job is to provide the best medical care available to each of your patients, so far tonight you have withheld food from two infants and put the health of one of them into a situation that could potentially cause further harm to him because you have passed judgement on their parents based on your assumptions about us. Our relationships have nothing to do with the medical needs of our son.”  
Cutting him off because she knows that once he is on a roll he would still be arguing with this ignorant bitch all night, “Yes, your comments are hateful,” the redhead takes a half step closer, “And that deeply concerns me. If your prejudices against our family led you to call CPS because you feel that we should not be raising our children. If you feel that strongly about us, how do we know that you are giving our son the best care possible? Personally, as a major donor to this hospital, I am shocked and appalled that this behavior has been allowed.” Turning to the supervisor, her body language saying that she will no longer be wasting her time or breath on the nurse.  
“Donor?” Gloria asks, her voice both shocked and nervous.   
Giving a pointed laugh. The redhead steps forward again, “Yes, donor,” she flashed her deadly bombshell smile, “My name is Cheryl Blossom and I, along with Betty Cooper,” she tilts her head back towards the closed door to JayJay’s room, “the blonde that you scolded for comforting her sick son,” she looks over her shoulder to address the nurse who was rapidly turning pale, “are the heirs to the Blossom estate. We are also the managers of the Blossom Philanthropic Foundation, you know,” her wide brown eyes narrow as she deals the killing blow, “the largest private donor to your hospital.” Glancing back to Hester, before focusing on Gloria, so continues, “So while my family is here I expect that each of them be treated with respect and dignity. Above all, I expect my son to be treated with the most effective medical plan to guide him to a complete recovery. And,” she steps right into Gloria’s face and lowers her voice, “Gloria, I expect that this woman,” she sneared over her shoulder at the nurse, “be escorted out of this building and that she never be allowed near me, my family, or my children again. This is a place for healing and in order for that to take place, everyone who comes through those doors needs to receive respect, dignity, and the best care possible, regardless of their family, race, class, or sexual orientation. There is no place for hate in healing.”  
Nodding silently, Gloria offers a soft smile, “I completely agree Ms. Blossom,” the honesty of her tone makes it clear that she is not saying that because Cheryl has caused a small scene or because she is a major donor but because she is right. “I need to handle some paperwork but I will be taking over your son’s care for the rest of the night. Rest assured that his care and recovery are my top priority.”  
Nodding, Cheryl steps back, “Thank you,” she answers, turning on her heel, she runs her hand down Juniper’s back, anchoring herself and settling her mind. Jughead echoes her thanks and the two turn to rejoin the rest of their little family. Before they open the door, she stops him, “Thank you for calling her out, for standing up for Toni and I,” Jughead cuts her off by touching her forearm, “Cheryl, she was a bigot and she was attacking my family. I just called her on her shit, you are the one that went all badass mortal combat with the philanthropic finisher.”  
Locking eyes they both burst out laughing at his ridiculous comment swinging the door open and rejoining their girls.   
“That situation has been handled and Nurse Rachett will not be coming near our boy again,” Cheryl comments cooly as she crosses the room to run her hand over JayJay’s downy head as he finished the bottle that Betty was feeding him.   
“Yeah, Cheryl went all bombshell Blossom badass on the supervisor,” Jughead smirked, sitting in the weird padded chair, he was joined by Betty after the blonde handed her boy over to Cheryl to be burped. So that Betty could take an exhausted Juniper from him and rock her to sleep. Both of the babies were soon curled together in the crib and their teenage parents sat in uncomfortable chairs that littered the room eating Pop’s.  
“Jesus, I don’t think that I have ever been this tired,” Betty leaned back against the back of the couch futon thing built into the wall in front of the window, leaving her half eaten burger abandoned on the seat beside her.  
“I’m not even sure what day it is,” Toni echoed in a sleep lined voice.  
“I don’t even know if I can fall asleep because I feel like the second I close my eyes some fresh hell will rain down on us again,” Cheryl mutters as she rubs the heels of her palms over her eyes.   
“Well maybe these will help us sleep,” Jughead leans over and grabs the box of stuff that his dad had sent from Alice Cooper’s room. He quickly explains what the box is and each teen grabs a pile of stuff and start to sort them looking for any hint or clue that would lead them to answers about where Alice Cooper was and help them untangle the mess of problems surrounding them.   
After a few hours of sorting and organizing they had established a timeline within the documents that gave them a rough outline of Alice’s time at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy. Scanning the documents to look for patterns or clues to the cult’s plans of ascension led each of them to slumber within an hour. It is just before dawn when Betty wakes, her mother’s notes in her lap. Glancing at the papers that had offered little in way of answers she sighed deeply, feeling the weight of this labyrinth of the cult and her mom and the inevitable fallout from Penelope Blossom’s machinations closing in on her. She collects the papers and gently places them on the table connected to the futon that she had fallen asleep on. Glancing around she smiles at Jughead who was laying on a foldout futon chair beside the crib, Juniper sleeping on his chest, his Serpent’s jacket draped over them both. Grabbing her phone she quickly snapped a few pictures. Looking beyond them she sees Toni on the other side of the crib in a chair that matches Jugheads. She is curled up on her side, one hand reaching out from under the very thin hospital blanket finding a home on Cheryl’s ankle. The red head was taking advantage of her petite frame and was curled on her side in the cot with JayJay, the railings still down. She was curled around the baby, her hand resting gently on his belly, even in sleep her instinct was to protect him. Betty can feel the prickle of tears at the sweet sight and snapped a few pictures of the two as well. She turned and sat her phone down before using the bathroom and splashing some water on her face.   
Wondering back into the room, she smiles at Jughead who is awake and is trying to get to the diaper bag before Juniper starts to cry. Betty grabs the baby’s bag and makes a bottle quickly crossing to take the baby from him.   
Pressing a kiss to her lips as he hands off the baby, he mumbles a “Morning,” before all but sprinting to the bathroom to pee. Betty changes the baby and wonders into the hallway to let a nurse know that they were going to need a bottle for Jason while she stats feeding Juniper hers. The nurse jumps to make the bottle so quickly that Betty nearly laughs--she really needed to find out exactly what Cheryl and Jughead said to the nurse.   
As she pushes the door back opening she hears Jason fusing and a sudden gasp, rounding the door quickly, she is greeted by CHeryl staring in horror at Jason’s bottom. Jughead has exited the bathroom and crosses to the redhead. Taking the clean diaper from her he finishes changing the baby. “I was going to warn you about that,” he lifts the baby once he is clean.   
“What the fuck is wrong with my Mother?” She cannot stop a few tears from escaping. Turning to her Jughead gently slides the baby into her arms.   
“It doesn’t matter,” he touches her elbow, “Your mom, Chic, Hal Cooper, Edger Evernever, anyone else in this damn town, none of them matter, because we are going to be better than them and we are going to protect the twins from them. Juniper and Jason are the only ones that matter now.”  
CHeryl nods and lets Toni pull her into an embrace, Jason still snuggled between them when a nervous nurse enters and delivers a bottle. She lets them know that the doctor will be in within the hour.  
Needing to break the tension, Betty pipes up, “So, did anyone find anything useful in these notes?” As she settles on the futon beside the stack of papers she sat down earlier, glancing at it with barely concealed contempt before turning her attention to the beautiful baby in her arms.   
“Only that your mom keeps everything,” Toni answers, her attention firmly on playing with Jaosn’s fingers while Cheryl fed him. “Isn’t that right buddy,” she happlilysks the baby, “Yes, Grandma Alice is horder isn’t she my little Dagger.”   
Quicking his head at the name, Jughead represses a chuckle at Toni being completely whipped because he knows that he is just as gone. “Dagger?” he asks.   
Looking up Toni shruggs, “Junebug.” Nodding he puts his hands up, “I like it.”  
Kissing her girl, Cheryl smiles, “I guess he does need his own nickname.”   
“It is way better than whatever FP was going to come up with,” Betty starts to burp Juniper, “If we left it to him they would end up Hubcap and Swizzle stick.” They all laugh as they agree, “True, very true.”   
The doctor joins them soon and after reviewing Jason’s charts and examining the boy, the doctor tells them that he is making a great recovery and they can take him home. It takes a few hours but they are all finally home by early afternoon. The babies are fed, bathed, and napping as the whole crew settle around the living room, reviewing the paperwork that they found at the Sisters trying to spot any clue. “Wait,” Archie drops a piece of paper that he has been staring at for several minutes, “Why do we have all this stuff.”   
Sighing, Betty answered, “I asked FP to bring me everything in my mom’s room at the Sisters.”   
“No, I mean why would your mom keep all of this stuff?” He pointed out the stacks of seemingly random stuff.  
Trying to keep the shock off of her face, Toni added, “He is right. Your mom never struck me as the Howard Hughes keeping every tissue type.”  
Betty stood and began pacing, “Yeah, because she’s not. But if she left all of this stuff, she had to know that I would go through it. She would have left me something.” Betty’s voice shakes a bit, her frustration and hurt clear. Her annoyance overwhelms her as she slams her hands on the table dislodging the carefully stacks of paper. Jughead stands and pulls her into his arms, She is fighting tears as she whispers, “she wouldn’t have just left me with nothing,” into his chest, her words breaking everyone’s heart.   
She takes a minute to compose herself and walks back to the table, looking to the mess of seemingly random stuff. Rubbing the tears from her eyes she looks again, seeing a series of seemingly random letters that were grammatically out of place throughout the notes, recipes, knitting patterns, and general collection of shit that her mother had left behind. “Wait, I think I see something,” looking up at her friends,her eyes wide, “She created a code.” Offering a half grin, she sets to work writing down the letters.


	7. The worm has turned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, I have had this written for like two weeks but I just could not get it right. I have edited it and reedited because I think that it is a boring chapter so I will be posting two chapters this week and the other is little porn-esque. Feedback is always appreciated! Also, I still have not seen this season so don't spoil it.

It took her nearly an hour to get all of the seemingly random letters isolated and copied down from her mother’s papers. While she did that the others continued to sort through the paperwork that F.P. had brought home from the Sisters. By the time that Veronica made a discovery, Toni was feeding Jason a bottle and singing to him softly in the native language that Jughead remembered hearing from the other Uktena women in the Serpents. Cheryl is on the floor, playing with Juniper and gazing lovingly up at Toni. It is so sweet that Veronica tries to not interrupt as she whispers to Archie, “Hey, is your mom home?”   
Quirking his brows at her, he replies, “Um, I think so,” as he stands to see if her car is in the driveway. Looking back at his girlfriend he finds her glued to the files in front of her where she is maniacally sorting what looks to be legal documents.  
“Text her,” she flashes her eyes up in sharp focus, “we need her. Now.” Nodding he takes out his phone as the others attention is drawn to the brunette.  
“V, what did you find?” Betty looks up from her notes on the couch as Jughead joins Veronica, reading the papers over her shoulder.   
“Wait,” he leans in further, “is this,” he lets the question hang as she nods, “I think so.”  
“Guys, stop with the cryptic,” Toni suggest as she shifts her little Dagger to burp.   
“Um,” she begins but is interrupted when Archie lets his mother in. The redhead makes her way into the room, somehow making jeans and a sweater look elegant.   
“Archie said that you all needed me, what’s going on,” she makes eye contact with each of the kids, a soft smile forming as she looks at Cheryl who has stood up and is holding Juniper, the baby snuggling into her aunt. “They are growing so fast,” she comments as she reaches out to wiggle the baby’s bare foot.  
Cheryl smiles at the other redhead, “They really are. I think they have grown over the last week,” the peace in the girl’s voice was refreshing for everyone in the room.   
The moment is broken by Archie’s quiet, “Mom,” to redirect her attention to the paperwork that Veronica had laid out.   
She joins the kids at the table taking the space to the right of Veronica, Betty standing to the brunette’s right.   
Her brow crinkles as she scans the documents, leaning in to reread several lines.   
“What did you find?” Toni’s voice is impatient this time.   
“Um, I would need to check the county records but it looks like,” she stops to look to Betty, “where did you all get these forms?”  
“The Sheriff found them at the Sisters of Quiet Mercy when they raided the building,” Betty supplied, “he is utilizing us to sort through everything.” She added, feeling a need to defend F.P. from the questionable practice of letting kids sort through evidence. Mary just nodded, letting her know that she was not judging.  
“It looks like the city took ownership of the Sisters months ago, which is odd because I always thought that it was owned by the Church but when the sisters died or abandoned the building the city took ownership and sold it.”  
Nodding Cheryl said, “Yeah, that is when the Farm bought it and moved in. “  
Shaking her head, Mary continued, “No, that is when Betty bought it.”  
“Yeah, my mom used my money from Clifford Blossom’s will,” Betty allowed her annoyance at her mother leak into her voice.   
“No, B,” Veronica pointed to the deed, “The paperwork says that you purchased the property, that includes the building, tunnels, land, and an old factory that is on the grounds,” Veronica looked to Mary before continuing, “And it appears that it wasn’t just the Sisters. You also own the building at 4663 Hickering Rd., and six homes spread across the Southside.”  
“That’s the White Worm,” Toni and Jughead respond at the mention of the address.   
“Wait,” Betty wipes her fingers under her eyes before pressing them into her temples trying to focus her thoughts before they gave her a migraine. “My mother,” she sighed and started again, looking to Mary, “How could I own property that I didn’t purchase? I mean how did my name get put on the paperwork if I didn’t sign anything.”  
“Because you are a minor and while both your parents would have needed to sign off on it, your mother could put it in your name,” Mary supplied.   
“She got my father to sign off on taking my money, I guess he could have given permission then, but why would Edger allow that?”  
“Because if the paperwork isn’t in his name, then there is no paper trail to connect him to the property, B,” Veronica’s eyes filled with sadness for her friend, “And any illegal activity taking place on the property would have traced back to you. Having the property holder be a minor also gives you a possible out if anything were to happen.”  
“And there was plenty of illegal shit happening there,” Cheryl sighed, her regret at being pulled into the place and Edger’s brand of bullshit clear.   
Toni squeezes her hand, pressing a kiss to her temple. Feeling the need to take a minute, Cheryl says, “We are going to go put the twins down for a nap okay.” Everyone nods and Jughead hears a buzz from the basement, “Okay, we are going to grab the laundry so bring down anything that you need washed okay,” the girls nod but Toni catches his eyes, letting him know that she understands that there is more to this situation and that they are going to need to figure it out quickly for the safety of their girls.   
Betty follows him to the basement idly, lost in her own thoughts for the moment. As he puts the clothes in the dryer, she picks up the basket of the twins clothes from the Farm. She wanted to wash the Farm off of all of them before they touched her babies again. After he starts the dryer, he turns and leans against it, waiting for her to process. As she sorts the clothes she starts to speak.   
“Why would my mom do that? Why would she put my name on the Sisters? I mean I guess V is right about why Edger would want to avoid putting his name on anything, if that is even his name, but why me? I wasn’t part of the Farm. Why not use one of his followers? They were giving up their organs for him, they sure as hell would have put their name on a deed. And how the hell did he, or me I guess, buy the White Worm?”   
Looking to him for the first time, Jughead realizes that she actually wants an answer to this, “I actually have an idea on that. Hiram bought it from Veronica, or she thought he did, but if he faked the deed to Pop’s then it could indicate that he did shady business with all of his properties, like she said, to protect himself. He was using the Worm as a brewing lab for fizzle rocks before V, Cheryl and Toni broke in and there is no way that he had his name on that. We need to pull the deeds and tax records on all of them,” Jughead made a mental note to check on that just in case his girlfriend secretly owned the rest of the Southside. “Actually, that also explains why he was in bed with the snake charmer. If Penny was working with him then she would have made sure that everything was untraceable. Hell, she hates me enough to put a methlab in your name for spite.” He scoffs.  
Quirking her head, she thought about that for the first time, “You’re right, but that bitch isn’t loyal to anyone and you know that she would have all of that in her back pocket for whenever it becomes useful.”  
“True,” he nods, thinking that he needs to sit down with his dad and talk about everything that Penny had on him and the Serpents before it bit them in the ass, unfortunately life just kept getting crazier and neither of them had had time.   
In frustration Betty throws a knit baby suit on the metal sorting table. Her thoughts of real estate interrupted by a metallic clanking. Looking to the table she asked, “Did you hear that?”   
Standing Jughead crosses the small distance between them, “Yeah, what was that?”  
Picking up the pants and sweater again, Betty drops them on the table again, the sound repeating. “What the hell,” she exams the pieces, finding a lump in the hemming of the tiny shirt.   
“Is it one of those anti theft things?” Jughead ask, looking over her shoulder.   
“No, my mom made these for the twins.” She answers as she finds edge of the hem.  
“She made them heavy wool suits in the summer?” Jughead asks, confused as to why Alice would have gone through the effort of making clothes that the twins never would wear.   
Quirking her head, Betty looked at him, “Yeah, that doesn’t make sense, it is just getting cold now and she made these a couple of months ago. Looking at the yellow jacket in her hands she assesses, “I actually think that they are too small now,” finishing the end of the hem she pulls the thread with her teeth and unspools her mother’s stitches sliding the hard object hidden in the hem down until it falls out on the table. Picking it up she turns it over in her hand.   
“Is that a key?” Jughead asks, taking the object from Betty’s palm. “Wait,” pulling the top he pulls it apart, “It's a flashdrive.”   
Her eyes widen, taking the drive from his hand she bounds up the stairs startling the group gathered around the table. Holding the flash drive up, she grabs her laptop from her bag beside the couch, her hands tap nervously as the computer loads and Archie ventures, “Um, Betty,”  
Jughead walks behind her pressing his hands to the back of her chair, “We found a flash drive sewn into a baby suit.” He explained, no one looked like that answered none of their questions but felt it best to wait for Betty to open the flash drive. A few moments later, Betty has opened several files and is squinting at the computer.   
“B, what did you find?” Veronica prompted her.   
“Um, it looks like an investigation like my mom does when she is organizing a big story,” Betty scanned the documents, all set out in the format that she had learned at her mother’s feet. As children, Polly never had the time or focus to work with their mom but Betty was fascinated with the way her mother’s mind worked, the way that she grabbed the tiny details and shards of information and connected them all into one image that revealed the truth of the matter. “It has scans of documents, pictures, and all sorts of information.” Looking up, she explains, “This is the way my mother organizes an investigation, but her notes and stuff aren’t here. I’m missing something,” she leans back and sighs, dropping her head back between Jughead’s hands. Leaning down he presses a kiss to her brow and Mary can’t help but smile at the kids that she loved as her own, whispering endgame to herself.  
“You okay baby,” he whispers, searching her face. Closing her eyes for a moment, she sighs but nods that yes, she is. Looking at the end of the flashdrive, he scrunches his brow, “Wait, that is a key, like an actual key to a storage lock or locker.” Carefully removing the drive, he puts it back together and holds it out to the others.   
“Maybe Alice put her research in one place and her notes in another,” Archie suggested.   
“That makes sense, especially if she was trying to keep what she was doing private,” Veronica adds.   
“Maybe but what story could she have been working on? I mean she wasn’t writing for the paper and her News job was not exactly hard hitting.” Betty kept scrolling through the documents .  
“Wait,” she leaned forward, “This is all stuff about the farm.”   
“Like the deeds and stuff we have?” Veronica circles the table to stand behind Betty as well.   
“Um no like financial records, and a bunch of sound and video files, and scans of documents and ids. There are thousands of files.” The exhaustion fills her voice.   
“And we have time to sort through them.” Jughead whispers.   
Scrunching his forehead, Archie takes the key from the table, “This is from the bus station.”  
“Huh,” Veronica crinkles her nose.   
“Yeah, it is a key from the lockers at the bus station.” He nods.   
“How the hell do you know that?” Betty shakes her head. Both Jughead and Archie awkwardly meet eyes and look down. Waving her hands, “You know what, I don’t want to know.” She stands up with a yawn, closing her computer. “Why don’t you and Archie go check that out and we will wrap up here?” Standing she turns and takes his face in her hands, kissing him. “I am going to start dinner.”   
He rests his hands on her hips, kissing her once more before whispering, “Okay.” He knew that something was going on but he also knows that she needs to process whatever it is before she can talk about it with him.   
The boys leave with little fan fair and Betty sends a text before turning to Mary, “Um, can I hire you as my attorney?” She asks, her wide green eyes terrified.   
Standing Mary rounds the table and pulls the blonde girl into her arms, rubbing her back. She doesn’t notice Cheryl and Toni enter the room until the redhead reaches out squeezes Betty’s shoulder, “Betty, what’s wrong?” She whispers.   
Pulling back from Mary, she offers her a small smile of gratitude, looking every minute of her sixteen years. Taking Cheryl’s hand, Betty takes a deep breath and ask again, “I think that we need a lawyer. We need to make sure that my sister can never get the twins back.” She looks to Cheryl, who takes over.   
“Mrs. Andrews, we would like to take full custody of the babies, Betty and I, and Toni and Jughead if that is possible.”   
Smiling, Mary nods, “Of course I will be your lawyer,” looking to Cheryl she adds, “And it's Mary, redhead to redhead.” Cheryl chuckles, “Yes, ma'am.”   
During this conversation, none of them had been paying attention to Veronica who had been searching through one of the boxes of paperwork that she had gone through last night. “Wait, wait, wait,” she mumbled as she searched. Finding a lilac folder, she looks up, holding her prize out to Mary, “I knew that I saw them last night but it didn’t seem urbane to the Edger search so I figured that this could wait.” Putting the folder in Mary’s hands, she crosses to her best friend and slides her arm around her, smiling to Cheryl letting both of them know that she has their backs.  
Sitting the folder on the table Mary starts spreading out the papers, reviewing them quickly. “Okay,” she says after a few moments, “Um, wow your mom is a devious bitch,” she mutters under her breath, looking up she blushes a bit, “Sorry, I mean that in the most positive way,” Mary offers and Betty shrugs, “Its true.”  
“So it looks like the twins births were never registered because they were not born in a hospital or with a licensed midwife and Polly did not file the paperwork so your mom,” she looks to Betty, “I’m assuming as soon as she moved to the Farm by the dates on this,” she points to a document that has been highlighted and tabbed, “Had Polly sign her rights away and allow your mom to become their legal guardian. Once she was their legal guardian she could make all of the legal, medical, and educational decisions on them and Polly could not get them back.”  
“Why the hell would she ever sign that,” Betty swallows back tears again, Cheryl squeezes her hand, not understanding why the girl that her brother had loved would just give away their babies. Taking a deep breath, she continues, “So that is why Mom said that Edger was going to adopt the twins after they were married.” Betty said to herself as much as to the room.   
“She had the adoption papers drawn up,” she pointed to more papers, “But Edger’s name isn’t on them, your’s and Cheryl’s are,” both girls in question look to each other and then to the stack of papers like they had all of the answers.   
“So, we have custody of the twins?” Cheryl asked cautiously her hand gripping Betty’s, squeezing it in an attempt to ground herself. Toni took a step forward and took Cheryl’s other hand.  
“Well, not yet but as soon as this paperwork is signed and filed then, yes, you two have legal guardianship of them. We also need to register their births and get them birth certificates and social security cards. But as soon as the two of you sign and I file them then yes, you are the legal mothers of those babies.”  
Both girls cannot stop the flow of tears as the reality sinks in. Betty pulls her cousins into a hug, whisper, “They are ours Cheryl,” Repeating her assertion at the hospital.   
“Um, not to interrupt but Betty she also signed and filed emancipation papers for you so you can legally adopt the twins and be considered a legal adult. Cheryl, are you emancipated?” Mary inquired.  
Stepping back from the hug Cheryl wipes her eyes as she nods, “Um, yeah, yeah my mom signed the papers last year.”   
“Okay, well if you want some time to make your decision and talk it over with the other people in your lives I encourage you to do that before signing anything,” Mary feels like she needs to give them the option to back out. As a mom, she would not want her son to be forced into parenthood before he was ready and she certainly was not going to let Alice Cooper’s machinations force these kids into parenthood.   
Shaking her head, Betty tells her, “We have already had those conversations and we want to take custody. We just thought that we were going to have to fight to keep them.”   
Nodding, Mary is both saddened and impressed. Saddened because these children were giving up so much of their lives and so many experiences to take care of children that they did not create, but she was incredibly impressed that they were both willing to do that for the betterment of their niece and nephew. “Okay, well if you are ready, Mrs. Cramer next door is a notary and if she has a minute you can sign them now and I can make it to the courthouse in time to file them.”  
“Really?” Cheryl’s brown eyes fill with hope. Mary nods, “Yeah, just give me a couple of minutes to get Mrs. Cramer.”   
As the door closes after Mary the girls briefly break apart. Taking out her phone, Betty starts to pace as she shoots a short text to Jughead asking if they have made it to the bus station yet. After a moment, her phone vibrates Yeah, we are just leaving. There was a fake back in the locker and a note with a bunch of random numbers. Are you sure that your mom was never in the CIA? We were thinking about stopping at Pop’s do you or the girls want anything?  
Of course Jughead and Archie go on a recon mission and end up thinking about food. Rolling her eyes, she responds Skip Pop’s. Please, I need you.  
“Jughead?” Toni asks.   
Nodding, Betty answers quietly, “Yeah. They are coming back.”   
Stepping into her friends path, Veronica puts her hands on the taller girl’s shoulders, “Come with me,” she takes her hand and led her upstairs to her room? Jugheads room? Veronica has never really asked about their living arrangements. Closing the door behind her Veronica pulls Betty over to the bed and both girls take a seat, “Betty, you know that you don’t have to do this. I mean no one would ever blame you for choosing not to be a mother at 16.”   
Resting her fists on her knees, Betty takes a moment to try to calm her thoughts, “I am not considering an abortion V, I am choosing to make sure that Juniper and Jason have a life with their family. I am choosing to not lose anyone else I love,” her voice breaks, “I just,”  
Rubbing her friend’s back, Veronica is silent while Betty works through her thoughts, “I almost lost them V.” The pain in the blonde’s eyes is shocking because she does a good job hiding it most days but in this moment, it is undeniable, just raw, naked agony in the green depths, “Two years ago I had this perfect family. My mom and dad loved each other and loved Polly and I. Polly was my best friend and everything that I wanted to be--she was smart and funny and loyal and she understood me completely. We used to sneak into each other’s rooms and stay up for hours after bedtime just talking about everything and,” she runs her hands over her head as if the gesture will calm her brain, “V, I am getting ready to take her kids away from her forever.”  
“Betty, just because your mom had the paperwork drawn up does not mean that you have to do this. We will find Polly and your mom,” Veronica tries to soothe her friend.   
Shaking her head Betty raises a hand to stop her friend, “No, you don’t understand, I am not upset that I am taking the kids. I have to protect them no matter what and right now that means protecting them from my batshit crazy sister. I guess I,” she sighs, her thoughts rapid and non sequitur, “When I first found Polly at the Sisters she was outside in the garden,” Betty starts, trying to explain her feelings even though her thoughts are running a million miles a minute and she had never felt so inarticulate , “We ran to each other and just hugged for like minutes. I had missed her so much that it felt like a part of me had been carved out with a dull knife from the first morning that she was gone. My mom and dad had the Sisters come take her away at like five in the morning. Archie, Jug, and I had had a sleepover camp out the night before and I didn’t come home until about 8. I should have known something was wrong because my mom hadn’t let me sleepover with the boys since the summer before ninth grade because she didn’t trust Archie” they both chuckle at that thought considering their current romantic entanglements. “Anyway I came home and she was just gone. For months my parents didn’t give me a straight answer about where she was or what happened, just that she had went away. So when I found her and hugged her it was like the pieces all fit together again. While we hugged I felt this weird little nudge against my belly and when I pulled back I realized that she was pregnant. I put both hands on her belly and we giggled as the twins kicked. It was so awing and my heart felt like it was going to explode. In that moment I knew that I would do whatever I had to to protect my sister’s baby, or babies as we later found out. At the time I thought the Blossoms were the enemy, and then my Mom and Dad for trying to force her to give them up for adoption. Then the Farm happened, and my dad was a serial killer, and all the other fucked up shit from this year. Now, my mom got her way, Polly did give the twins up for adoption. It's just that I’m the one taking them away and she is the one that I have to protect them from,” Looking at Veronica, she continues, “I have loved them from that first moment when they kicked me and I will continue to love them more than I ever knew possible, but I guess this is just crystallizes the fact that my family is gone. There is no trace or semblance of that perfect family from two years ago. I watched my dad get murdered less than a week ago, my mom and sister ran away with an organ stealing cult, and I am about to become a mom. All of the things that I used to define myself before are gone and have been proven to be completely false. Hell, even my former best friend chose a cult over me. I don’t know what all of this means or how I define myself now. I just know that it is all different.”  
“B, you will define yourself as you always have, with your heart that is so full of love and empathy for others, with your amazing intelligence that has solved mysteries, found tactical solutions to hopeless situations, and taught Archie how to read,” Betty laughs through her tears in a very unladylike snort, “And your bravery that has saved the lives of dozens of people in this town and that will make you the most amazing mom. But B,” she reaches our and tilts the blonde’s chin up so that she was looking in her eyes, “You are not alone in any of this. You have all of us, me and Archie, Cheryl and Toni and Jughead. We all love you and we are all here for you, no matter what.” Betty falls forward into the brunette's arms thanking her through her tears, “Thanks V, I really needed to hear that.” As the girls pull apart, they both smile, “I love you V.”   
“I love you too B.” Looking around she adds, “And so does Jughead clearly because, even though this is the first time in his life that he has had his own bedroom he hasn’t changed anything in here.”   
Scoffing, Betty looked around, “He said he didn’t care if we kept my stuff.”   
“Yeah, proving his love,” Veronica laughed, their light banter meant to assuage Betty’s heavy heart, “Because badass biker gang King or not, the man lives in the pinkest bedroom that I have ever seen. How is he supposed to write dark, emo, pretentious novels in Strawberry Shortcake’s love nest?”   
This description makes both of them burst out laughing and that is how Jughead finds them, red faced and crying in laughter on the bed. Knocking lightly on the slightly ajar door, he pushes it open and chuckling at the girls state. “Um, not to interrupt, but is everything okay?” He asks, concerned about Betty after her text.   
Nodding both girls tried to compose themselves. Standing Betty crosses to her boyfriend, “Did Mary tell you what V found?’   
Sliding his hand around her waist he pulled her to him, kissing her gently, before nodding, “Yeah, they’re ours. It seems too easy, too good to be true but Mary says that it is legit and I guess at this point that we shouldn’t look a gift adoption in the mouth.”   
Nodding, Betty pulls back slightly, “Jug, are you sure you want to do this? No judgement or hurt feelings if you don’t. They are not your responsibility.”   
Raising his fingers to her lips he stops her words, “I have already told you, I’m all in. The babies are your blood and that makes them my responsibility. I am not their biological father but I fell in love with them the first time that we babysit them,” smiling at the memory, Betty is reminded of just how little Polly ever actually took care of the babies at home or when she saw her at the farm, “I love you and we are in this together. Always.”   
She swallows her emotions, having had enough tears for one day. Nodding she kisses him again and steps back. Taking his hand she leads him down the stairs and Veronica falls in line behind them. Once they are in the dining room, Betty is taken with the banality of the scene. Mary is seated at the head of the table, Cheryl to her right with Toni seated beside her, holding the redhead’s hand tightly. Mrs. Cramer is seated at the far end of the table so Betty takes the seat to the left of Mary, Jughead to her right.   
Once they are seated, Mary asks, “Okay, everyone ready?”  
Looking to Cheryl, Betty offers a small smile, both girls nod, “Yeah,” “Absolutely.”  
Smiling she continues, “Okay, now, these,” she indicates three copies of the same documents, “Are the official adoption documents. Everything is in order and the termination of parental rights for Polly have all been signed and filed so all we need to do today is for each of you to sign all three sets of the adoption papers. I have flagged each spot that you need to sign and initial. Once you complete that, Mrs. Cramer will notarize them and I will file them. The paperwork will process officially tomorrow morning when the judge signs off, but once each of you sign Juniper and Jason are legally your children.”   
Taking a deep breath, Betty and Cheryl reach forward at the same time, their fingers bumping. The awkward movement makes both girls giggle and they each grab a separate stack. They make quick work of signing in all of the marked areas on each packet and as Betty finished signing her full name in the last spot on the last page she is overwhelmed at the relief that washes through her. Flipping the papers closed, she looks to Jughead and smiles as he squeezes her fingers, lifting her hand to kiss the back of it before pressing a sweet kiss to her lips. Looking to her left she sees Toni kiss Cheryl before pressing their foreheads together. Looking to her cousin, Betty offers, “Congratulations, mom.”   
Smiling as tears filled her eyes, Cheryl echoes the sentiment, “Congratulations mom.” Both girls stand and meet halfway hugging each other tightly, each of them feeling their family become a bit more whole than it had been since before this insanity began. Once they pull apart Betty laughs, “Well of all the ways that I thought that I would become a mother, I can honestly say that I never pictured this.”   
Laughing, Cheryl agrees, “For a long time I thought that motherhood was not an option for me, that love was not an option for me,” Looking around the room, eyes settling on Toni, she takes Betty’s hand and smiles, “I am really glad that I was wrong.”   
“We all are Cheryl,” Jughead and Toni both move forward, “Welcome to the family,” he extends his arm and to his surprise Cheryl folds into him in a fierce hug. “Thank you for being willing to share your babies with me,” he whispers as they pull apart she offers he a real smile and a nod .   
Toni hugs Betty, both girls keeping and eye on their lovers and both relieved that they seem to be past their previous conflicts.   
Looking to the two adults in the room, they all thank Mary and Mrs. Cramer, the latter smiling and bidding them all farewell.   
“Okay, well I am going to head out to file these. Archie, are you going to be home for dinner?” Mary hates to break the moment but she wants these papers on file ASAP.   
“Um,” he looks at Veronica and then Betty, “Actually Betty said that she was cooking dinner for us all.”  
“Yeah,” Betty nods, “Obviously you are invited Mrs. Andrews,” Betty smiled, “I know that it is not much payment for all that you have done for us today but we would be happy to host you.”   
Smiling, Mary squeezes the girl’s arm, “That is very sweet Betty but I have a lot of work to catch up on and a working dinner is just what I need. Thank you though, and how many times do I have to say that it is Mary?”  
Smiling bashfully, Betty nods, “Yes Mary. Thank you again, so much for this. Have a wonderful night.” Betty moves to the kitchen and starts to pull out ingredients for dinner. Archie and Veronica take their leave to go to the Pembroke for fresh clothes and some alone time. After a few minutes, the twins start to fuss over the baby monitor, clearly over their nap. Cheryl stands, “Come on Toni, lets go get our babies,” she takes her girl’s hand.   
“Wait,” Betty stops her cousin, “Jug can you and Cheryl go get the kids, I need to talk to Toni about something.” She looks between her boyfriend and Cheryl. Both nod and they trot upstairs. As she chops veggies she takes a breath, trying to figure out how to word her request. “So, since we now know that I own the Worm, how do you think that the Serpents would feel if I reopened it?”  
Toni’s raised eyebrows conveyed her shock at the question, “Um, well, I know that a lot of people were completely displaced all over town after the rumble. Some became Ghoulies and some moved away, but I think that most of us felt lost, not just because we lost our homes, but because the Southside was so much a part of our identity. The Worm was a place that was ours, a place where we could be ourselves without having to live up to anyone else’s standards.”  
Nodding, Betty looked up, “I know, and that is why I want to open it again,” the blonde pauses, focusing on the movement of the knife in her hand as she focuses her thoughts, “but I don’t want to make it awkward for people because I own it. I don’t want it to seem like I am just a Northsider pandering to them.”  
Toni is taken aback by the other girl’s words, “You’re the Serpent Queen Betty,” Toni reminds her, “I don’t know if you know the weight of that amongst the other Serpents and even non affiliated Southsiders. Yeah, you were a Northsider but you chose to be one of us,” leaning forward on the counter Toni hopes that her sincerity is clear on her face, “You may have started out as Jughead’s uppity girlfriend but you have proven yourself time and again. You have had our backs at every turn over the last year and that counts for something.”   
“Us,” Betty smiled bashfully, “I like the sound of that.” Dropping the veggies into a hot skillet, Betty continues, “How much work do you think it needs? You know to recover from being a Meth lab and whatever else the Ghoulies and Penny did to it.”  
With a roll of her eyes Toni answered, “It needed quite a bit of work before Hiram Lodge bought it. I haven’t seen it since then though.”   
“It sounds like we need to make a field trip then,” Jughead says as he and Cheryl return to the room, each holding a freshly changed baby.  
“Okay,” Betty smiles, “I was thinking that we could hire the Serpents that are still not working full time to do the restoration. If I can figure out what my mother did with the rest of my money I would like to do something with The Sisters of Quiet Mercy too. I don’t know, make it into a treatment center or apartments for homeless teens. Something positive to counteract all of the bad shit that happened there.”

“That is a really good idea Bet,” Cheryl looks genuinely shocked. “We could hire the Serpents to do the work there as well. I am happy to invest since you are still trying to track your money and technically you do own the buildings. I just,” she ran her hand over Jason’s back, kissing his head before continuing, “After what I went through there, what I know so many others went through there, I need to help others to never have to go through that.”  
Smiling at her cousin, Betty nodded, “A safe haven for those who need it.”  
“I will make some calls before dinner to the guys who are out of work and who have experience doing construction and restoration work.” he says before taking his phone off the counter, handing Juniper over to Toni and walking downstairs into the unfinished office in the basement.   
While Betty continued to make dinner, Toni and Cheryl put the twins into their high chairs, Toni playing with them both while Cheryl retrieved the homemade baby food that Betty had found time to prepare at some point today. Toni turned from playing peek a boo to look at the other two girls, “Since everything is permanent now, I guess we should decide on what we want the kids to call us.”   
Betty looks up from the stove meeting eyes with both of the others, “Um, I guess I haven’t really thought about it.” She admits while she dumps a pot to drain pasta.  
Cheryl looks almost bashful as she settles in front of Juniper, handing a jar to Toni. As they start feeding the babies she says, “Um, I guess we could just be Aunt Cheryl and Aunt Betty, I mean if Polly is their mother,” Betty cuts Cheryl off, seeing where this is going, “No,” she turns to her cousin, walking around the counter she stands behind the Twin’s chairs, “It may sound cold but she gave them away. It doesn’t matter if she did it by signing them over to Edger, to my mom, or to Penelope, she gave them away. She let them be separated and put in harms way, she doesn’t get to be their mom anymore. We are their moms,” She unconsciously runs her hand over Jason’s head, gently avoiding the huge bruise left from the IV. Her other hand traces one of Juniper’s wispy red curl.   
“I agree,” Toni answers as she wipes a bit of carrot off of Juniper’s nose, the baby rewarding her with a giggle.   
“Okay,” Cheryl, “So what do you want to be called, ‘cause “Mom” for all three of us is going to be confusing for everyone. Jughead has it easy, he just gets to be ‘Dad’.”  
“You are okay with that,” The young man in question joins them,”I mean, are you okay with them calling me Dad instead of Jason?”  
Pausing for a moment Cheryl realized that she had not really considered that to ever be an issue, “As much as I love my brother and I feel his loss in every breath, these babies are my living link to him. At first, I cherished them because they were a piece of JayJay, but now I cherish them because they are these perfect, amazing little people. Biology aside though, they are now our children and you are their Dad, if that is what you want to be called.” She reached up and squeezed his hand. He nods, “It is an honor to be their dad,” he smiled, leaning forward to kiss each of the baby’s heads. Juniper squealed reaching her chubby arms up to him, letting him know that she was done with her dinner. Rolling her eyes, Toni stepped back from the chair and took the reusable jar and spoon to the sink, “I think that is a good thing because we definitely have a Daddy’s girl.” She smirks as she hands over a damp rag.  
Laughing, he grabs the wash rag over the counter behind him and wipes her hands off before lifting her up. “That’s right Junebug, you are Daddy’s girl,” He kisses her head. Reaching out her kisses Jason’s head as the baby happily eats green goo that Cheryl is feeding him, “I love you too Little Man.”   
As Toni stirs the pasta into the sauce and veggies Betty prepared, Toni continues, “Well I want to be ‘Agitsi’, it is our word for mother, but for now we may shorten it to Agi.”  
“I really love that,” Betty smiles and Cheryl blows her a kiss. Jason is fascinated by the gesture and tries to blow his Agi a kiss as well but it just turns into green bubbles which makes everyone laugh and earns him a kiss on the forehead from Cheryl.   
“If it is okay with you two, I could be mama?” Betty asked with hesitation, “My mother was always “Mom” and I need to,” she sighed, her thoughts and heart in very different places about her mom, “I need to do this my own way.”  
“Agreed,” Cheryl wipes the remaining food from Jason’s face taking the rag offered by Jughead to clean the little boy up. “We do this our way. And I guess that makes me Mommy. I have used the word thousands of times in my life but it always seemed so hollow with my mother. Now, I would like to give it some meaning.”   
“Glad that is all settled,” Jughead’s tone lightened the heavy shroud of pain that seemed to permeate discussions of Betty and Cheryl’s families, “Now I just have to teach them both to say ‘Daddy’ first so that everyone knows that they love me most.”  
The girls all laughed as they each moved to prep for dinner. Toni putting the final touches on the food, Jughead and Betty setting the babies in their play area that has taken over the living room so that they can see them from the table while they eat, Cheryl sets the table and texts Veronica and Archie that dinner is ready.


	8. Chapter 8 When the feds show up, no one get laid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just a warning, the first part of this is just a bit of porn. I put in a line separation so you can skip to the plot part of the chapter. I hope you enjoy the chapter! Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Happy Yule or whatever you celebrate, I hope this chapter finds you well. Thank you for taking time out of your day to read my story!

Chapter 8

It had been a crazy exhausting week and when he opened his eyes in the morning Jughead was not sure if he had ever slept that hard. He knew that Betty had gotten up during the night with the babies but she did not wake him for help and he was quickly back asleep. Looking around he noticed that the twins were not in the room. Sliding out of bed, careful not to disturb the beautiful sleeping girl to his side he carefully wandered down to the room that Toni and Cheryl we sleeping in. It felt weird to let himself into their space, even if it was his house, but he needed to see the babies. The site that greeted him was adorable; Cheryl and Toni were both sleeping on their sides facing one another, the twins between them, also sleeping. Each rested a hand on a baby, making sure the twins were safe even in slumber. They made a beautiful sight so he quickly took a picture on his phone for Betty. Seeing that the babies were safe and sleeping he made his way downstairs and put on a pot of coffee. Looking around he scoffed, it was still hard for him to process that this was his home, this huge home on Elm Street. That he had a huge kitchen, and stairs, and his own bedroom--even if he technically did share it with Betty still seemed so unreal. Pouring a cup of coffee for himself, black, no sugar, and one for Betty, three sugars and a dash of real cream in a travel mug so it would stay hot for whenever she woke up.   
Making his way back up the stairs he enters the room and closes and locks the door behind him. Sitting both cups down he looks at Betty. She does this thing where she will pretend to be asleep long after she is awake as if the act will stave off the day. Walking to the foot of their bed he pulls the duvet up kisses the inside of her ankle. Making his way up the inside of her calf he can feel her fighting to stay still. Reaching her knee, he playfully licks the hollow of her knee and she lets out a squeal of laughter giving up on her act. He quickly moves higher, the intent of his kisses shifting from playful to passionate. By the time he reaches the secret tattoo on the inside of her left leg, he can feel the slight twitching of her thighs in anticipation of his destination. He smiles against her warm skin looking at the small yellow crown that she had tattooed on the delicate skin that was a gift just for him.   
He remembers the night that she had come home, more drunk than he had ever seen her, after a night out with Toni, Cheryl, Veronica, and some of the other Vixens before Cheryl and Toni’s crime spree. Somehow a drinking game had turned into Toni giving Betty a tattoo dedicated to Jughead’s favorite accessory. Nipping the crown before soothing the skin with his tongue as he turns to lick her core, the action is rewarded by a deep sigh from the beautiful blonde. As he follows a practiced path of pulling, sucking, licking and just the right amount of teeth, Betty buries her fingers in his thick hair and gives herself over to the sensations. Feeling a deep pull behind her navel she sinks her nails into his scalp with one hand, the other reaching for purchase above her head as she bites her lip to control her moans for fear of waking the rest of the house. Her back arches and her legs tremble as his lithe fingers reach all of the right places inside of her and his tongue creates a beautiful rhythm on her clit. As he changes the angle of his fingers she cannot contain the whimpers clawing out of her throat or the way her heels dig into his back as she crashes into a white hot blinding climax that leaves her legs and belly quaking and her mind deliciously blank. As her conscience returns she can feel the amazing tug of Jughead pulling her nipple into his mouth, teasing it with his tongue while he uses his finger nail to tease the other. Unable to hold back a moan she is suddenly flooded with panic, pushing him away she shoves the blanket off knocking her boyfriend over as the blankets hit the floor, “Where are the babies?” She looks around the room.  
Flipping onto his back, he rolls his eyes, “They are with Toni and Cheryl, why did you not wonder about them before?” He attempts an inquisitive eyebrow lift but with his ruffled hair, sleepy eyes, and her cum on his face he looks positively debauched.   
Smirking she pouts, “You distracted me,” before pulling his shirt over her head, leaving her completely naked. Stopping at the edge of the bed slides her fingers back into his hair, guiding him back towards her chest. Knowing that wherever this was going was going to be fun he leans forward, sinking his teeth into her delicate skin sliding them to the end of her nipple before flicking it with his tongue and sucking it back into his mouth. The way her head drops back tells him that he got something right. He is so focused on teasing her into distraction that he completely misses her sliding her knees to rest on either side of his legs until she shoves him back onto the pillows, kissing him as she reaches behind her before wrapping her hand around his cock, sliding her hand up and down a few times as she leans back in to kiss him. As she slides her fingers up, her hand held him firmly just below his head as she slid his head through her wet folds before lining him up with her body. He sits himself completely up fisting her hair and kissing her deeply as she slides down on him in one swift move sinking her teeth into his bottom lip as the burn of penetration washes over her.   
His free hand stills her for a moment on the base of her back, pressing his head into her collarbone as he takes in the sensation of being wrapped in her tight warmth. She pulls his head up as she rolls her hips against him in a sinfully slow grind. She tortures him with the delicious pace, making each sensation last almost too long. He leans back again, sliding his hands down to her hips. He works to control his breathing and enjoy the show. One of his favorite things about sex with Betty was watching her claim her power over him and over her own body. He loved every part of her all the time but during sex she seemed to love every part of herself as well.   
She gripped her nails into his stomach as her eyes locked with his and the tension inside of her began to build again. As her pace increased she tossed her hair over her shoulder leaned back a bit, using her knees to lift herself up and down as she chased her release. He was as transfixed by the bounce of her perfect breasts and the sight of his cock disappearing inside of her as he was by the pleasure singing through every nerve in his body. Slipping his thumb between them, he teases her clit in time with her thrust sending her barreling over the cliff her whole body jerking forward seeking as much skin contact as possible while she falls apart. Using her orgasm to reclaim control, Jughead grips her knees and rolls them over, Betty completely pliable as she pants through her comedown. Slipping his knees under her thighs, he grips her hips sliding almost completely out of her before slamming back into her with a force and speed that sends them both on a rapid path to the end. She lays beneath him, golden hair spilling around her, her skin glowing, reflecting the sunlight breaking through the bay window as the new day began, beautiful, angelic, louche. Betty’s eyes squeeze shut as she rolls her hips to meet his. As the tension builds, she opens her eyes and locks her green orbs with his. Reaching her hand up, she gently cups his cheek, running her thumb along his cheekbone. Somehow that simple, chaste touch sent him careening over the precipice, his fingers releasing their bruising grip on her hips as he scrambles to press them into the bed, catching himself as his body presses forward onto Betty. As Jughead spills inside her, Betty finds her own final release her voice cracking in a primal cry. Gripping his head she guides his face to her, kissing him as both of their hips give uncontrollable jerks as they both fight to come down. “God, I love you,” She whispers as her hands cup his face, her feet locking around his hips, holding him in place inside her.   
Pushing an errant lock of her hair out of her face, he rubs his nose against hers, “I love you,” his voice was soft and unguarded. Both moan as he finally pulls out of her body and rolls to lay beside her. They turn to face each other, kissing and caressing in the afterglow. “I really needed that,” Betty sighs. Chuckling, he answers, “I’m glad to be of service.”   
Rubbing her fingers along his jaw, her voice becomes earnest, “Seriously Juggie, thank you for standing by me, no one would blame you for walking,” he can hear the insecurity in her voice so he tries to lighten the mood, “Well, I don’t know a man alive that could walk away from sex like that.” His impish smile earns him a smack on the shoulder as they both breakdown into giggles. After a few moments she slides out of bed, turns to him, “Well by my count we have got a few minutes before the twins wake up and I would like to be less,” she gestured to her body, “sticky.” She takes a few steps forward before flipping her hair over her shoulder and asking, “Wanna join me?”  
His eyes barely scan her beautifully naked body before he jumps to his feet and chases her into the bathroom, both giggling the whole way.

𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁𝌁

Jellybean was having a ridiculous day and it was only 8 freakin’ o’clock in the morning. She was awoken by the super annoying sex sounds coming from her brother’s room. Ew. She liked Betty and all but Jesus that girl was loud! And clearly that lung capacity was genetic because her crying babies were making just as much noise as her moaning. Cheryl and Toni had brought the babies down stairs to feed them but when Veronica and Archie stumbled out of the basement all disheveled and offered to feed the babies so that Toni and Cheryl could get ready for the day the two yelled their thanks down as they stumbled up the stairs, barely getting the door closed before the giggling and moaning started from their room. Which was actually the guest room. Because none of these people really freakin' lived here! It was like living in a brothel with a daycare center!   
She needed more coffee if she was going to survive the morning. She past Veronica attempting to calm Jason down on her way to the kitchen and rolled her eyes. Maybe if she hadn’t awoken to a cacophony of sex sounds she would have told her that Jason didn’t like to be held that way but right now she didn’t give a shit. In fact she needed at least 32 more ounces of coffee before she could even think about giving a shit. She rolls her eyes at Archie’s questioning, judgmental look as she poured the black nectar of the Gods into her favorite mug. Like she was going to take life advice from him! While he was pretty to look at, he clearly wasn’t a brain trust, as evidenced by the fact that he has scrunched up his nose and is looking around for the bad smell taking over the kitchen. Rolling her eyes again, she smirks, “It’s the baby,” as she passes him to grab a muffin and exit the kitchen. His confused puppy face as he processes her words is laughable but the horror that replaces it as realization dawns in damned hilarious.   
Before she can comment further the bell rings. Who the hell drops by at 8 on a Saturday morning. It better not be another one of those stupid housewives that had found a reason to drop by to “have coffee” with her dad every since her mom had left and her dad made the mistake of working on his bike in the front yard shirtless last month. They all tried to talk to her like she was seven and they weren’t trying to sleep with her dad. Rolling her eyes at the thought she tries to move back to the stairs.   
At the knock, Veronica looks at Jellybean who just shrugs, “I’m not allowed to answer the door,” she lies, not wanting to move or stop eating. Betty may be a screamer but the girl could bake!

With a deep breath of cold morning air he takes a final swig of his coffee. Leaving the empty cup in the cup holder he climbs out of the car and jogs across the road in the brisk morning breeze. His hurry pauses at the steps, the flutter of possible outcomes leaves a wake of dread in his stomach as he mounts the brick steps. Stop being stupid, what is the worst that could happen he thinks and rings the bell. Of all the scenarios that he had run on his head, he had honestly never thought of the one he found. After what seemed like a lot of chaos inside, the red door swung open to reveal a pissed off looking brunette holding a screaming, red faced blonde baby. Her look as she scanned her eyes over him can only be described as hostile. He is trying to place her when she asks, “Can help you?” Her body language as she shifts the upset infant to the other hip says that she doesn’t give a fuck who he is or what he wants but she is still polite enough to ask.   
“Hi, I’m Agent Smith with the F.B.I. I need to speak to Betty Cooper.” He is formal, yet polite. If he though her demeanor was hostel before, his words made her go colder in the damp morning air. She takes a step towards the stairs, shifting the baby again, and yells, “Betty the feds are here!” Her sharp black eyes never leaving his, her distrust of him permeating every breath. A younger girl with mousy brown hair steps out of the living room to stand behind the brunette, “Did you say,” The young girl begins. The brunette’s sharp nod cuts her off, breaking eye contact from him for the first time, she whispers, “Go get your brother.”   
The younger girl bounds up the steps without an argument. Moments later the sound of her beating on a door and shouting can be heard. He suddenly finds the door swung shut in his face.   
Betty and Jughead are halfway to round two when the sound of the doorbell can be heard in the distance. Both ignore the noise until Veronica’s voice echoes over the sound of the shower and their own hormones “Betty the feds are here!” Jughead pulls his face away from his girlfriend’s chest looking sharply at her, “Did she say,” before he can finish his question he hears his sister pounding on the bedroom door yelling confirmation. Standing fully he sighs as Betty lowers her legs from around his waist, telling him, “Go, I need to rinse my hair and I will be down in a few minutes.” Kissing her he nods and steps into the shower spray to rinse any residual soap off of his body. Grabbing his arm she adds, “Don’t give him any information or answer questions but don’t let him think you have anything to hide.”  
Smiling he nods before kissing her, “Yes ma’am,” kind of loving that his girl friend was telling him to avoid self incrimination like he wasn’t the one of them that grew up in a biker gang. Grabbing a pair of jeans and a wife beater he quickly got dressed, rubbing a towel over his head to stop it from dripping before realizing that he was going to have to go downstairs to get his favorite flannel. Sighing, he opened the door to his bedroom to see his wide eyed sister, hugging her quickly, he says, “JB go into your room and shut the door, make sure that the babycam in the living room is recording and text Toni and let her know what is going on,” she nods, happy to have a task. Jug was just happy that she didn’t put up a fight and he could keep her away from whatever the FBI was bringing to their door. Jogging down the stairs he can hear both of the twins screaming. Veronica is at the bottom of the stairs looking tense and staring at the door, Jason in her arms screaming his head off, the brunette is not acknowledging the baby’s cries,her focus completely on the danger lurking behind the wooden door.   
“Hey buddy, what is going on,” He takes the baby from her, knowing that the boy is picking up on her stress and becoming more upset. He honestly questions how good Veronica is with infants on her best day but he doesn’t comment on it.   
“Agent Smith,” she supplies coolly, “he says that he is here to speak to Betty,” she informs him, never breaking eye contact with the door. Jughead nods and understands that she is freaking out because a few days ago feds had showed up at her door and arrested her mother. “Where is Betty?” She looks behind him.  
“She’s in the shower,” he offers still rocking Jason and rubbing his back. Scoffing she rolls her eyes, ”Sure she is.”   
“Where are Cheryl and Toni?” He looks around,not commenting on her snarky comment.  
“I think they are in the shower as well,” Her euphemism clear when she cuts her eyes at him. It is enough to break a bit of the tension in her face and for that he is grateful.  
Chuckling he nods, “Okay. Thanks for watching the babies, can you take JayJay up and get Cheryl and Toni down here?” She nods, “Has he eaten?”   
“I tried but he was not very interested,” She offers as he hands the calmer baby back.  
“He prefers Toni to feed him when he is upset so go tell her he needs his Agi,” He smiles and kisses the baby’s head. Veronica seems relieved to have a reason to avoid the Federal agent on the other side of the door before he is invited in. Jughead feels a little bit bad to cut in to Cheryl and Toni’s rendezvous but when the feds call, no one gets laid.   
Squaring his shoulders he pulls the door open, trepidatious of what fresh hell was about to rain down on them. The agent on the other side was not what he expected. He was young, maybe 24, 25, light brown hair, light eyes, and a cautious smile. He meets Jughead’s eyes with an expectation that Jughead cannot place. The two men’s staring match is interrupted by a yelp from the other room followed by Archie yelling, “What the fuck!”   
Sparing a glance over his shoulder Jughead tries to focus on the man in front of him, “Hello,” he prompts. The man is also looking towards the noise over Jughead’s left shoulder, “Um, I need to see Betty Cooper,” his focus is now on everything behind the dark haired Serpent.   
“She is in the shower, can I help you?” Jug’s tone is clipped.   
“No, I need to see,” he is cut off by another exclamation from the kitchen, “Oh God you ginger traitor, that is,” and then there is a gagging sound.   
Rolling his eyes, Jughead turns, “Well if you are going to keep staring you might as well come in before we all freeze,” as he closes the door he hears Juniper start screaming in earnest. “It sounds like my daughter wants an audience, come with me,” he instructs.   
Charles cannot stop is eyes from scanning everything in the house. The furnishings, nicknacks, school bags by the couch, paperwork laid out on the table- clearly a workspace. He takes in the young man who answered the door. He is the same height as himself, dark hair wet and unruly, jeans and undershirt sticking to his skin in spots making it clear that he had just exited the shower. She’s in the shower the whereabouts of Betty echoed in his head as he surmise that they had likely been in the shower together. That image was incredibly disturbing but was quickly replaced by the image of a disheveled redheaded teen in the kitchen with a screaming equally redheaded baby who seemed to have poop smeared all over her and the boy holding her at arm’s length .  
“Andrews, what the hell did you do to my girl?” Jughead takes the baby under her arms, looking behind him he orders, “Stay with me, you do not have permission to read, collect or search anything.” He barks as he leads them down the stairs to the left into a wash room that is under construction. As the younger man sits the baby on the sorting table he talks to her as he starts the tap, waiting a moment for it to warm, “You’re okay Junebug,” he whispered into the baby’s hair as he kissed her head, “Daddy is going to get you all cleaned up babygirl,” judging the water to be an appropriate temperature, he strips the baby and lowers her into the water, using the sprayer to quickly spray the mess off of her, talking to her to distract her from the actions like he didn’t want the water to scare her as he gently washes her skin after the diaper explosion has been dealt with.  
Charles is shocked by this gentleness in the other man’s movements. The baby is still fussing but she is watching her dad with fascination. The undershirt reveals a rather prominent scar on the right shoulder of the young man, and the coiled serpent representing the gang that he was a part of rested on the left. Charles knew that his ‘brother’ was in the Serpents but it was an inconvenient fact that he had yet to even process. Once clean, the baby in the sink seemed to calm down a bit more, her cries now directed at her frustration at still being in the sink as Jughead turned to grab a warm towel out of the dryer that was a few feet away.   
“It’s okay Junebug, you are all clean and Daddy is going to get you all wrapped up and warm and then you are going to eat,” he turned, having grabbed a diaper bag from somewhere while Charles had been studying the little girl. She was beautiful with rounded cheeks, an upturned nose that looks very similar to Alice’s and a mop of red hair. It was also clear that she loved her Dad, this strange boy who stood before him. His brother. Charles felt nauseous with nerves at the prospect of the conversation that he was going to have in the next few minutes.   
Jughead wrapped the baby in the fluffy pink towel and pulled her to his chest as he dried her with gentle swirls of the towel. It was just an odd motion but it was clearly a practiced one and the baby settle almost immediately.   
“She really loves you,” Charles’ voice shocked even him because he did not mean to say the words out loud. Jughead looked at him cautiously and held the baby closer, blocking her more from the fed’s view. The awkward moment was broken by the entrance of the redheaded boy from minutes earlier, “Dude, that is the most disgusting thing ever,” he trotted down the stairs, now shirtless, “How can anything that little make a smell that bad?” He looks warily at the baby still wrapped in a towel in her father’s arms.   
“You would be amazed,” Jughead muttered, “Junebug, did you poop all over Uncle Archie?” He tickled the baby’s belly making her giggle. “Did you?”  
“Are you laughing at me?” The other boy looked outraged at the two but they both chuckled. Both boys subtly warily glance in his direction while teasing each other, as Archie collects the remnants of the baby’s diaper and onsie with a grimace and throws them into the same trash bag that he had clearly thrown his shirt into.  
“Well she had to let you know who the new redhead in charge is,” Jughead teases. Charles is taken by their comfortable banter whilst he was awkwardly watching the two. Archie scoffed, “I guess Cheryl really is her mom,” crossing to the back door, tossing the bag outside,thankfully taking the smell with it. Jug laughed turning back to the table where he laid the baby down on the towel and quickly diapered her before pulling a fuzzy set of plaid footie pajamas out of a basket and begins to dress her. The red haired boy returns, “You owe me a shirt,” he gripes as he returns. Charles wonders at the shocking scars down the young man’s chest and over his shoulder and other scar on his abdomen that seems relatively fresh to accompany a litany of bruises littering his body. The tattoo, a serpent matching his brother’s, on his other shoulder give him a clue about the mitigating factors to those wounds.   
“There are some in the dryer,” he nods as his kisses the baby’s belly while dressing her, inciting more giggles from the girl. “Will you grab my flannel too?”   
The redhead responds by dropping the shirt beside the baby and pulling a white thermal over his head. The whole scene seemed practiced and comfortable and Charles suddenly felt like more of an outsider than he had ever felt even though he was in a house filled with his biological family. Jughead pulls the flannel on before lifting the baby, unconsciously kissing her head as she settles comfortably against his chest.   
“Dude you are so whipped,” the ginger boy teases.  
Jughead smiles and smells the baby’s hair, “Yeah, well, who can resist a Cooper girl?”  
They both chuckle at a joke that Charles doesn’t understand and then look to him, “Let’s go upstairs,” Jughead seems more solemn, looking to Archie he asks, “Are the girls?”  
Nodding he cuts off the question. As they re-enter the kitchen they are met by a beautiful girl with long purple hair. She is holding the blonde baby that he had glimpsed before the door had been slammed in his face, the boy is eating happily and much less red than he was earlier. A statuesque redhead joins them handing Jughead a bottle before kissing the baby’s head, “How is Mommy’s girl this morning?” She smiles at the baby who returns her smile with a squeal and grabs her hair. It is this moment that Charles realizes that the baby and the girl look remarkably alike, she must be the Blossom girl he realizes. The interaction makes Charles wonder if Alice was wrong and his brother was with the redhead and not Betty. His suspicions were expanded when the girl and Jughead seem to have a silent conversation as he shifts his eyes and she nods before crossing to the other girl kissing her and the baby that she is holding. Well I guess I was wrong about that, he thought, again feeling like he was missing a lot of information.   
All of the interaction takes place as if he is not in the room. They go through each action without acknowledging that there is a federal agent standing in the kitchen. He thinks that he is going to have to introduce himself when his Jughead turns drawing his attention to the tall blonde entering the room. She pauses at the door and makes eye contact with Jughead who responds by crossing the room and kissing her. Pressing their foreheads together they take a breath as one. Pulling back she rubs her nose over the eating baby’s head, kissing her forehead before taking her boyfriend’s hand and leading him to the chairs opposite a couch in front of the windows in the living room. Lowering herself into the left chair she pulls her shoulders back and folds her hands on her lap.   
“You said that you need to speak to me,” she inquires gesturing to the couch in front of her.   
“Yes,” he takes a step towards her.   
“Please have a seat,” she prompts after he makes no move to sit down. As he moves his brother sits down in the chair beside his sister, the other two girls trade the baby as the smaller girl with pastel hair comes to stand to Jughead’s left and the redhead takes a post to Betty’s right, the latter reaching up to play with the baby’s foot as the girls locked eyes again silently communicating something.   
His sister. Wow, his little sister. She was the perfect picture of a small town teenage girl, light jeans, a pale pink sweater, diamond earrings, bouncy ponytail, and bright, intelligent eyes. It was the expectation in those green orbs that shook him from his observation. Taking a breath he offers a smile that does nothing to warm the room to the presence of a federal agent. “Hi Betty, I am here to discuss your mother.”   
The blonde swallowed hard as her eyes filled with fear. Jughead reached over and threaded his fingers through her. The two of them, in their separate chairs, sentanials on either side of them, and twined serpents coiled together formed a statue between them, looked like they were some sort of suburban royals on their thrones. The redhead takes a step forward, prompting him, “She isn’t,” she let the thought hang.   
“Oh,” he suddenly realizes that they all think that he is here to tell Betty that her mother is dead, “Oh, no, as far as I know she is alive.” He figures that he must get through this quickly and dumps his story about Alice being a spy for the FBI and how he has now lost all contact with her. Jughead pipes up, “So when was her last check in?”  
“Over two weeks ago, just after Betty went to the Farm to stay.”  
“Okay,” Jughead leans forward in his seat, “did the two of you have a secondary protocol for contacting each other in the event of exposure or emergency?”  
Charles’ face registers shock at the younger man’s question, “No, our protocol was very limited because of the precarious situation that Alice was in at the Farm.” Even he can hear how unprofessional that sounds.   
“So you had no plan to get her out in the event of an emergency?” Toni asks.  
“Well, she wasn’t willing to leave without Polly or the twins and Edger was keeping a very close watch,” he knew that all of his excuses just sounded empty.   
“Why did she contact you,” Betty asks in a low voice.   
“Um, well she contacted the FBI once she started looking into the Farm when they moved here. She had started digging when your sister first joined them and then when she saw an opening to actually join she contacted the FBI office in New York and brought us all of the evidence that she had compiled. We have been tracing the Farm for over a year but this was the first opportunity that arose to send an operative in undercover.”   
“No offence but you are what, 24, 25? You clearly were not heading this taskforce and the fact that you have misplaced my mother, who was your entire case, makes it clear that you don’t have the experience to be a handler for an uncover asset. So that means that she requested to work with you and there are very few reasons that I can think of that would make my mother ask to work with someone who is so unprepared to orchestrate a situation that she was relying on to get my sister back. So I ask again, why did she contact you, and this time give me a straight answer.” Her tone was direct and cutting and so much like his mother.   
Looking down at his hands he chuckles and nods, “Um, Alice said that you were one of the best investigators that she has ever met.”   
“Clearly not good enough because she snowed me,” Betty replies in a tone that is so sad and defeated that it breaks his heart.   
“You’re right, Alice did contact me and after we met I took the case that she had presented to me to the agents that were investigating the Farm. Once they agreed to bring her in, she demanded that I be her FBI handler. And, she gets what she wants,” he offers a half hearted chuckle out of nerves, no one else laughs. “But, you are right, she contacted me because,” he looks to Betty, who seems to be bracing herself for a blow, “I’m Charles Smith, your,” he leaves it hanging.   
“My brother,” Betty finishes the sentence for him. Jughead is not sure who is squeezing the other’s hand harder, him or Betty but they are clinging to each other as that bomb settles in.   
Finding his voice, Jughead adds, “And my brother.”   
Nodding the blonde man looks to him, “Yes, Jughead, and your brother.”  
“Wait,” Toni looks between the three of them.   
“That is so,” Cheryl has taken Betty’s other hand, searching for the words, “very Blossom.” Rolling his eyes, Jughead answers her, “Ew, he is our half brother” considering his words he looks at the redhead, “yeah, that doesn’t make it sound better.”   
For her part Betty has gone completely pale as she processes everything. Suddenly, and to the shock of everyone else, she stands. She is a bit shaky for a moment before pivoting to Cheryl who, without words, handed her Jayjay, before she turns to Jughead and leans over taking the sleeping baby from him before silently climbing the stairs, her babies in her arms, to process this latest realizations.   
Jughead stands to follow her but is stopped by Cheryl’s hand on his arm, “Let me,” her eyes tell him that this is something she needs to be there for. Nodding he lets her pass, still not sitting as he stares at the man in front of him. The moment is broken by a movement on the stairs as his sister comes to a stop at the bottom of them, her eyes wide and her hurt clear, “What the hell does he mean, brother?”


	9. Family

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His sister’s words freeze any thought of chasing after his girlfriend. Turning completely Jughead crosses to his sister, “JB,” he starts but she pushes past him to stand in front of Charles who had also stood and is warily looking at the girl.   
“You must be Jellybean,” he broaches smiling what he hopes is a reassuring smile.   
“Don’t call me that. My name is JB,” she corrects rotely, crossing her arms she bites the inside of her lip and tries not to cry. Looking into the man in front of her face, she sees familiar features but she still cannot put the pieces together in a way that makes this man her brother.   
“Okay,” he nods, “JB, I am your brother, Charles” he starts.   
“No,” she shakes her head, the tears filling her defiant eyes, “No I only have one brother and you are not him.” She insists, looking to Jughead, her chin starts to quiver, “Tell him Jughead, you are my only brother. It is just us, like always.”  
Jughead crosses to his sister, silently pulling her into his arms. She wraps her arms around him and finally let the tears fall as she buries her face in his chest. Looking over her head, Jughead locks eyes with Charles, “It is time for you go,” his tone is clear and direct.   
“Well, we really need to review the case to find Alice,” Charles begins, remembering his purpose for being here in the first place.   
Narrowing her eyes, Toni steps between Charles and the Jones siblings, doing all that she can to put a barrier between the federal agent and the crying young girl who she loved like her own blood. “I think that you have done enough damage to our family for the moment. Leave your number, we will call you if we find anything. Now please leave us in peace.” Her words are clear and calm but something in the tone left no room for argument. Charles looks once more at his sister sobbing in his brother’s arms and he nodded.  
His shoulders slump, showing his disappointment, and he pulls out his card. Quickly jotting his personal cell number on the back of the card, he handed it to Toni and he let himself out silently.   
Jughead rubbed his baby sister’s back for a moment more before reaching down and scooping her up, and carrying her up the stairs to her room. He sits against her head board, holding her and rocking her in the same way that he rocked the twins. This is a practiced situation; over the years he has often found himself in the role of protecting Jellybean from the world, from all of the things that could hurt her. In their home that usually meant protecting her from their parent’s fights and their Dad’s drunken mistakes. Ironically, now they were faced with a walking, talking reminder of their dad’s mistakes and neither of them knew how to navigate this situation. As Jellybean’s cries tapered off she leaned back and wiped her eyes and nose with the sleeve of her shirt before locking her eyes with her brother’s identical ones, “What is the fed talking about? How is he our brother and how the hell did you not think that you should tell me?”  
Running his hand through his hair Jughead tried to collect his thoughts. Sighing he began, “When they were sixteen Dad and Alice Cooper had a baby, Charles,” her incredulous look gave him pause.  
“What the hell? How did they even know each other much less make a baby?”  
“Well, um,” he stuttered a bit.  
“Oh stop it, I know how babies get made but,”  
“Wait, how do you know how babies get made?” He suddenly is overcome with a paranoia that can only come when a big brother realizes that his baby sister is growing up.   
Her scoff is pure Jones as she rolls her eyes, “Maybe it was all of the grunting and squeals coming from your room,” and suddenly Jughead has never felt more awkward in his life.   
“Ah, um,”  
“Oh shut up, trailers are small and bikers talk too much when they don’t know a little girl is in the room. What I asked was how did Dad managed to knock up the Martha Stewart of the Northside?”  
Chuckling, Jughead remembered thinking a similar thing when he found out about his dad’s past with Alice Cooper, “Actually, she was a serpent,” his words shock Jellybean.   
“Seriously, Alice Cooper was a serpent, she lived in the Southside?”   
Nodding he continued, “Yeah, I know right.”  
Looking down she traced the pattern on her comforter, “So why did we never know about this long lost brother? Where was he?”  
Catching her eyes, he felt the need to defend their dad, “Well, we didn’t know because Dad never knew, not until a few months ago. Alice never told him, she just disappeared, said that she transferred to a private school. She was really at The Sisters of Quiet Mercy. She had Charles there and gave him up for adoption.” He left out the fact that she had convinced Hal Cooper that Charles was his child.   
“Okay, so why is he knocking on our door if he has a family?” She asked trying to keep the hurt out of her voice.  
“Jellybean, he never got adopted. He was raised in the orphanage until he ran away, at least that is the story that we were told by Chic,” he quickly explains the Chic saga to her, avoiding the murder parts of the story.   
“So, Alice only told dad about his child when she thought he was dead? Even when she had the imposture son back, she never considered telling him that he had a child?” Her face flushed with anger, “What a bitch!”   
Reaching out and tucking her hair behind her ear, Jughead takes a breath, allowing the irony that he is going to defend Alice Cooper wash over him, “I honestly don’t know that I will ever understand how or why Alice makes decisions but I think that she knew that she could not give her baby a future from Sunnyside Trailer Park, and that if she told dad then she would be taking away his future and forcing him to follow a path that he didn’t want to follow. He was a football star and wanted to go to college and live legit far away from the Southside.”  
Scoffing, she rolled her eyes, “Yeah, that really worked out.”  
Shrugging he replied, “None of us can ever know the future or how much small decisions can affect our lives long term.” Looking around he chuckled, “I mean a year ago would you have thought we would be living on Elm Street in this huge house with all of these bathrooms and Cheryl Blossom cuddling with a snake in the next room?”  
Laughing she shrugged, “Yeah, no one saw that coming” both of them laugh happy to have the tension broken even if both of them know that this is not the end of this problem or the end of this discussion. Smiling she punches his arm, “One thing I did think would happen is you having babies with Betty Cooper, you were always the clear choice,” he guffs at the punch to the arm but a part of him that always felt like an outsider in his own friends group as a kid feels validated by his sister’s words.   
Across the hall Cheryl finds Betty sitting on the bed, legs akimbo, leaning against the headboard watching the babies curled together in sleep in front of her. Her tears are silent for fear of making a sound that will shatter her tightly controlled facade. She only realizes that Cheryl has entered the room when the girl reaches out and runs a comforting hand over her head. Jerking to face her cousin she quickly wipes her face.   
“Hey,” Cheryl whispers, “You feel like talking about it?”  
Her face cracking Betty falls forward into Cheryl’s arms as she lets herself cry for a few moments. She pulls herself together and leans back, “I’m sorry, I just,” she doesn’t even know how to finish her thought. Cheryl pushes back Betty’s hair and offers her a half smile, “I get it, we all have to break a little sometimes. You just got a lot of information dumped on you and I am sure that you are overwhelmed.”   
“My brother is alive,” her watery green eyes widened, “My brother is alive and I am such a hypocrite,” her voice cracked as she fought back tears.   
“How do you mean?” Cheryl is honestly taken aback by the blond’s statement.   
“I have spent the last week raging against my sister for abandoning her children and putting them in danger but,” she took a deep breath, “Cheryl, I have been trying to find my mom because I thought that she was brainwashed and needed my help but she was completely rational and just trying to save her daughter who she thought was brainwashed and needed her. I mean, I would do anything to protect them,” she reached out and took hold of Juniper’s foot, “But I just sat down there and listened to a man, a stranger, who is my brother and all I felt was jealous. I am jealous. How ridiculous is that?” She swallowed hard and gave up on trying to stop the tears, “I’m jealous of him because my mom searched for him, worked with him, to save Polly and bring down the Farm. She has been working with him for months and manipulating everyone and in all of that, she just left me.” Scoffing, she turns to Cheryl, tossing her hands in defeat, “I am making all of you hunt down clues and read endless scraps of paper trying to find a code or some bullshit tip to find my mom just to prove to myself that she loves me. That she needs me.” She cannot hold back the sobs for a moment. Cheryl reaches across and takes her hand, saying nothing, knowing that Betty needed to vent all of this. “God, when did I become this person?” She stands, needing to move. Running her hands over her hair she tightens her ponytail out of habit, “I feel like this whole year has ripped open every part of me and I have become someone that I don’t always like. I lost Polly, first to the sisters and then to the Farm and then to her own choices. I thought that I needed to protect my mom from what my sister was doing. I wanted to distract my mom from Polly leaving so much that I tracked down a con man that I thought was my brother and I brought him into our home and put us all, the twins included, in danger. Why would I ever rationally think that that would be anything but a disaster?” She paces, her hands gesturing wildly as she paced, “I always do that, I see a problem and I just go at it like a fucking wrecking ball and I manipulate everything and everyone to fix the situation, and I disregard the consequences,” her voice is rough from crying and she is nearly whispering to not wake up the babies. Closing her eyes for a moment, Betty is hit by an overwhelming need to have a conversation that she should have had months ago. “Cheryl,” she looks to the babies again, drawing the strength to say these words and praying that her words do not ruin everything that they have begun to build. “Do you hate me?”   
Cheryl can honestly say that those were not the words that she expected to hear out of Betty’s mouth when she came up here. However, she knows that they need to have this conversation honestly before they can move on. “Um, at times I have,” she admits in a small voice.  
Nodding, Betty looked down, “I understand that. At the risk of sounding completely melodramatic, my greatest shame is the way that I have treated you. I know that we were never close before,” she gestured to the twins cause both girls to smile a bit, “But once I knew that we were family and that we were going to be part of each other’s lives forever because of the twins, once I knew about your family’s treatment of you, I didn’t do a damn thing to stop it or to help you. Instead I focused on trying to put my fucked up facade of a family back together by trying to replace my sister with a long lost brother. And I couldn’t even get that right,” she scoffs, “I never even tried to help my sister or get her back from the Farm. I was so upset that she abandoned me that I let her go. So much of this is my fault, but the worst thing I did was dehumanizing you and refusing to to help you. God, I used the worst moment of your life against you. I blackmailed you into doing something that should have been your choice and I did it by using your brother’s murder. I hate the part of myself that did that more than I hate Edger or Chic or even my Dad. I hate that I have that in me and that I could ignore your pain, Polly’s pain, hell my mom’s pain and I know that words will never be enough and I cannot expect forgiveness but please know that I am truly sorry.”  
Cheryl closes her eyes against the tears, taking a deep breath before speaking, “That,” tilts her head, “is actually not the time that I hated you. You holding that recording over my head made me hate myself,” her eyes are drawn back to the twins, the only peace that she has found in this mess, “I have been told my whole life that I was not worth other’s time or interest, that I was not worth the Blossom name and status,” Looking to Betty, she tries to keep the tremor out of her voice, “I was that other one, never as worthy of love or attention as Jason. I developed this shell of the vapid bitch in order to keep people at arm’s length so no one saw how hollow it all was. My mother beat her hatred into me and then labeled me a deviant the one time I allowed myself to feel love, to feel whole, because she felt that my love of another girl was unnatural. She ripped the light out of my world and filled it with bruises, harsh reprimands, and utter loneliness. My brother was the only affection that I was allowed. We shared everything from birth, and even though pop psychology would say that I should have hated him because he was the loved one, the cherished one, Jason was the only person who ever loved me.”   
“Oh, God,” Betty sat back down beside her cousin, “You know that your mother was wrong. You are so deserving of love and of peace.” Her mind filled with images of Cheryl disappearing into the ice of Sweetwater River and hiding in the barn beside Jason’s corpse.   
Nodding, Cheryl wipes her eyes, nodding, “Yeah, I know that now. I know that because of Toni and the babies. Betty, what you did to me was wrong. It was shitty, and vile, and a violation,” taking another breath she swallows thickly, “But, some part of me gets why you did it. You were trying to protect Jughead and I know that just like Toni taught me how to love and that I should be loved, I know that Jughead is that for you, so I get defending it. That doesn’t make what you did okay but I think that it was you going to an extreme to protect what was yours.”  
Brushing tears away again, Betty nodded, “Yeah, but you are my family too,” Betty cries, “And I never tried to protect you.”  
Taking the blonde’s hand, Cheryl gave her a sad half smile, “Betty we are family,” looking behind her to the babies, she amended, “now. And we always will be. We need to move forward from this, from our sins against each other and the sins committed upon us by the people who were supposed to protect us.” Taking a breath, she hopes this goes well, “After what happened,” she closes her eyes against the words, “with Jason’s body, F.P. and I had a long talk. He sent Dr. Sharron, a psychologist that he has worked with before, to assess me. I am going to be going to see her three times a week at first and then we will reassess as we go. I need to deal with all of this before it hurts Toni or our babies.” Opened her eyes she finds Betty’s own, “And I think you need to talk to her too, or if not her another doctor that you are comfortable with. I know that you have felt like you have to hold it all together but, as a co-parent, I think you need to deal with everything before it hurts everyone in your life.”   
Betty’s knee jerk response is to tell her to mind her own fucking business but then she sees a flash of her father’s head exploding in front of her and she cannot contain the sob that rips from some part of her soul, she slaps her hand over her mouth to keep the sound, the pain, inside. The noise is enough to disturb Jason who responds with a cry of his own. Cheryl slides her arms under him before he can wake his sister, reaching out with her free hand she pulls Betty’s hand away from her mouth and slips the baby into her arms. “It’s okay baby,” Cheryl whispers as he takes her finger, “your Mama is okay. She is going to be okay.” She smiles up at Betty who pulls her into a hug. Betty feels like the ‘I’m fine’ facade that she has carefully constructed crumbles all around her in a rushing wave as she realizes that she is not okay. She is in pain and fucked up and lost and that she needs to fix that in order to prevent visiting the pain of her past on her children in the way that her parents, and Cheryl, Jug, and Toni’s parents did to them. Through her tears, she whispers, “Can I go with you? Just to make sure that I don’t chicken out.” Both girls smiling through their tears the chuckle, “Of course, tomorrow at 2.” Cheryl respond. They both shed a few more tears as they hug, their boy between them.   
Outside the door, Jughead and Toni look at each other, having eavesdropped on much of their girl’s conversation, “You think it is okay to go in now?” He asks. They had both gone to the room to check in on their girlfriends but they both also knew that Betty and Cheryl needed to hash this out alone.   
Leaning back, both girls wipe their faces offering each other a smile. Looking towards the door, Betty asks, “Should we tell them it is okay to come in now?”  
Giggling, Cheryl nods. “Hey, you guys want foursome?”  
Hearing a loud scoff as the door pushed open, “It is comments like that that makes everyone think that you Blossoms are all inbred.” Jughead deadpans.  
“Really? I thought that it was the inbreeding?” Toni crossed to her girlfriend.   
“Says the guy who is fucking his brother’s sister,” Cheryl deadpans back and Toni took a seat on her lap, planting a kiss on her full lips.   
With a disgusted shiver, Betty waves her hand, “Dear God never say that again.”   
Jughead looked equally green, “Yeah, that is going to be super fun to explain, to everyone, forever.” Everyone was happy to the tension break. “I loaded the car. Are you ready?” Jughead ask his girlfriend who nods, shifting the baby, she turns to face Toni and Cheryl, “So I know that you two have not had a chance to meet with the Pretty Poisons, but we are doing deliveries today to the Southside and you two are welcome to come.”   
Tilting her head, Cheryl asks, “Deliveries?”   
“Yeah, Jug and I check in on all the Serpents that are still struggling after the Ghoulies took the Southside. If we can, we drop off some stuff that they need. Just like food, medication, school supplies, stuff like that.”   
Toni miles at the blonde, “This your idea?”  
Taking Jughead’s hand, she replies, “Well, we came up with it together,” not wanting to seem like a rich Northsider that was offering handouts to the other Serpents to make herself look better.   
Jughead drops a kiss on her head, “The Serpents are a family, we take care of our own.” Standing, he walks around the bed, “But Betty totally came up with the cute boxed delivery idea. It has helped, people love getting baked goods and all of the personalized stuff that she puts in them.”  
Toni and Cheryl have a silent conversation before turning to Betty, “Yes, we would love to go, if we broach combining the gangs through a joint outreach it will be easier for everyone.”  
Nodding, Jughead smiles unconsciously as he lifts Juniper as her eyes open, the baby snuggling into him instead of crying, “And if we bring our two newest Serpents, we will be unstoppable.” He kisses the baby’s redhead as he grabs her diaper bag.   
“I agree,” Toni stands and pulls Cheryl with her, let us get changed and we will meet you downstairs.”   
“Okay, you two okay with driving with the twins?” He asks and Toni nods before closing the door.   
Betty changes Jason’s diaper and starts sorting through the folded laundry basket beside the bed for outfits for the twins. After he changes Juniper, he picks her up and crosses to the bed and lays her beside her brother. Playing with both babies, he asks, “So, are we going to discuss this?”   
Pausing her sorting she looks at him, “Yeah, we will talk about it but I’m not ready yet. We also need to figure out a lot of stuff with Toni, Cheryl, and V before we make a plan about our federal agent brother.”  
Releasing a tense breath, he nods, “I agree,” relieved that she understood the difficulty that a fed could add to their involvement in an illegal organization.   
“We really need to go get the babies some new clothes,” she muttered as she retrieved two pair of overalls, one black one denim, and long sleeved onsies, “Almost everything is too small and the stuff that fits is farmie white.”   
“Yeah,” he agrees looking over at the pile of tiny white garments, “But I feel like that should be a you and Cheryl job,” he suggest and she laughs, “What’s wrong Jug, you don’t want to go baby shopping with your three baby mamas?”   
Wrapping his arms around her waist, he kisses her neck, “I would rather be filleted, again.”   
“Noted,” she kisses him before they finish dressing the babies with tiny shoes, coats, and hats. Jughead straps the babies into their carrier carseats while Betty changes into dark jeans, a black sweater and boots, a look that is topped by her Serpents Jacket as they meet Toni and Cheryl by the front door. Jug hands the babies over to their moms and runs downstairs, returning with a box. “Um, don’t feel that you have to, but,” he opens the box and pulls out a pair of leather jackets, one black, one red, both proudly displaying an embroidered serpent.   
Toni’s smile answers his question but she hesitates, “Maybe we should wait until we meet with the others.”   
He nods, and says, “They are waiting on you when you are ready.”   
“Okay,” Betty leads the others outside and retrieves a list of addresses, each with a number beside it that corresponds with the number on the box that is to be left at that address. They are even color coded by who will be home and if the box has perishables. Toni chuckles at Betty’s type A organization and the fact that she and Cheryl share this trait. “We are going on the bike,” Jughead instructs after Betty reviews her list, “You guys follow in the car. I think that a united front is the best way to reintroduce you two to the crew. I know a lot of people have missed you T,” he and Toni share a smile that communicates years of shared experiences as kids who grew up in this gang. As Jughead snaps Juniper’s carseat into it’s base he realizes for the first time that his own children are being introduced to the community that helped raise him, and while there was a part of him that tried to hide his home life in shame, it was never about the Serpents, it was about his Dad’s drinking and his strung out mom who abandoned him. He was proud of his crew and he knew that they would keep his family safe in the same way that they had kept him safe for years. Closing the door as the girls climb in the car he smiles and watches Toni back out.   
Betty wraps her arms around him and asks, “You ready?”  
Nodding, he smiles and pulls on his helmet, “Yeah, let’s go introduce our babies to the Serpents.” Climbing on his bike he cranks it, waiting as Betty settled behind him and took off.


	10. Chapter 10 Confessions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so this is a lot of exposition and set up for future events but I am not sure I like it. It is very long and I have tried to edit it, cut it up, break it into two chapters, and nothing worked so I am just posting the whole thing. Hopefully you like it! It was a tough chapter to write.

It took them a few hours to deliver boxes to the Serpents spread over the city. The twins had been a big hit with everyone and all of the older Serpents were glad to see Toni again. As they loaded the babies back into the car after the last stop on the list, Toni’s head pops up, “Betty, we still have one more box and no more houses, did we skip someone?” She asks.  
“No, we didn’t but I thought that you would want to do the last one personally.” Her soft smile almost scares Toni, “Your Grandfather knows that you are coming and we thought that you and Cheryl would like to privately introduce him to his great-grandbabies. We will go if you want but that choice is yours.”   
Toni cannot help the tears that flooded her eyes as she nodded and whispered, “Thanks.”  
“Take all of the time that you need, but meet us at the Worm after okay.” Jug adds as they all depart.   
While Cheryl and Toni show off their babies to her grandfather, Jughead and Betty meet Sweetpea at the Worm. He is waiting for them when they pull into the abandoned lot, leaning against the front wall smoking a cigarette. His demeanor says cool and calm but he is posted in the most defensible position, watching the lot for anyone approaching, clearly nervous in a place that a few short months ago was a second home. He takes a deep slow drag as Jug’s bike comes into view. He has the blonde with him, Sweetpea thinks with a roll of his eyes. He had grown to accept the fact that she was Jughead’s queen but there was a part of him that always saw her as a Northsider who looked down on them all. As they park and dismount he takes one last drawl off of his cigarette and tosses it.   
As Betty shakes out her hair and stows her helmet Jughead asks, “Thanks for meeting us. Have you scanned it?”  
Nodding he stands up from the wall, “Yeah, but I don’t like all of us being out here in the open,” his eyes scan the horizon again, not fancying a fight if anyone shows, “Most of the Ghoulies are gone but the Gargoyles are still a threat and I don’t like ours chances.” Nodding to Betty he adds, “Plus, we are trespassing.”   
“Actually,” Jughead follows the taller boy to the door, stepping to the side to let Betty enter, pulling the door closed behind them, “We are not trespassing.”  
Scoffing, Sweetpea asks, “You make peace with Hiram Lodge?” His disdain for the man clear in his voice.  
Speaking up, “No,” Betty chuckles, “We own the Worm.”

At this Sweetpea spins, “Say what?” Looking between them as the blonde nods, “You bought the Worm?”  
“Kind of,” Jughead explains as he starts looking around, “Betty’s mom or the Farm or some combination of the above bought the property and put it in Betty’s name so,” he trails off as he finds a couple of pens and notepads.   
“So your girlfriend owns the Worm,” Sweetpea’s tone is cautious.   
Cutting his eyes at his friend Jughead corrects, “Your Queen owns the Worm.” His tone leaving no room for further argument and his frustration at the other young man’s dismissive attitude towards Betty a raw wound between them.   
Betty takes Jughead’s hand and adds, “The Serpents own the Worm,” looking between the two young men, “As it should be.”  
Under her gaze Sweetpea drops his shoulders, looking down he nods, “Yeah, as it should be.” Sufficiently chastened.  
“Betty wants to hire the Serpents that are still out of work to fix the place up and repair everything that the Ghoulies messed up. We want to open it back up, let people know that this is still our community.”  
“Really?” Sweetpea looks to Betty, his scepticism barely hidden.  
“Yes, really,” Betty replies, “People need jobs and they need normal, I think that this will help with both. I also need a construction crew to adapt a few other buildings that were bought in my name. It is time that we reclaim what Hiram Lodge took.” Her tone left no room for argument without being out and out combatant to Sweetpea.   
He looks to the ground and then meets her eyes with a nod, “Agreed. How can I help?”  
Jughead nods his thanks at Sweetpea’s acceptance of Betty’s efforts to help the Serpents reclaim what they had lost.   
“Have you scanned the entire building?” Jughead’s tone is all business.   
Nodding Sweetpea responds, “Yeah, we’re clear. The cops didn’t miss anything when they raided the place after the Ghoulies took off.”   
“Good, because we need to have a conversation that is inner circle only,” Jug replies.   
“We?” Sweetpea inquires.   
Leaning against the bar, Jughead crosses his arms, “Yeah, we. If we are going to right this ship, we are all going to have to be working together. The Serpents, Veronica, the Pretty Poisons, we are going to save our home.”   
Taking in the grim determination on Jughead’s words Sweetpea crosses his arms over his chest, “Can we trust them? Trust a Lodge? Trust Cheryl and Toni to not fly off the handle and do something impulsive that gets us all in trouble?”  
“That’s why we are here, to figure it out,” Jughead doesn’t want to have this conversation twice so he changes the focus, “Everyone will be here in a little while but until they are let's check over the building and start a list of repairs that need to be made.” Looking to Betty he takes three note pads that she had retrieved from her messenger back handing one over to Sweetpea, he says, “You take this main floor, Sweetpea take upstairs, and I will take the basement.” They each nod and set about their work. Betty shoots Veronica a text and checks in with Cheryl to see how everything is going. She is relieved to hear that it is going well. As she circles the bar she is shocked by some of the weird damage--holes in walls and graffiti, but the overall construction seems very sound to her. Cringing as she pushes the door to the bathroom open, she is happy to hear Jughead’s voice, “Hey, I think I may have figured out why Edger bought the Worm,” He is standing in the doorway to the basement. Quirking her head she asks, “What?’  
Reaching his hand out he guides her to the stairs. “You have to see this to believe it.   
As they walk down the narrow stairs, she makes a mental note to make them less rickety. He leads her over to the cinder block wall behind the stairs. “Watch this,” he prompts before pushing four of the blocks. The wall makes a soft popping sound and slides apart revealing a tunnel. Looking to her boyfriend Betty cannot hide her shock, “Did you know that this was here?”  
Shaking his head he took her hand, pulling her into the tunnel, “No, I didn’t but there was always a standing freezer in front of this wall. When I got down here, I realized that the freezer was gone, which is weird because where else could you put it? But then I remembered the tape of Clifford Blossom killing Jason and it never made sense that he could have gotten in and out of the Worm without the crew seeing him and why would he be coming from that direction? Then I looked at the wall and there were scuff marks on the bricks and Abracadabra! Hidden tunnel.”  
Chuckling, Betty looks around the brick walls, lit by their cell phones, surmising, “You think that this tunnel connects to the Sisters?” He nods, “I think you may be right, Hiram was using the tunnels to transport product from here to the Sisters to be tested on the patients. When the Farm bought the Sisters he had to move his production to the prison.”  
“That is the only thing that makes sense,” he shrugs. Their conversation is interrupted by an alert from his phone, reading the screen he pulls her towards the exit, “Archie and Veronica are here with dinner.” Taking a moment to make sure that the door to the tunnel is closed, they bound up the stairs. Jughead goes to let Archie and Veronica in and Betty retrieves a stack of plates and glasses that she had found and washed earlier that evening. Picking up her phone she starts a text to check in on Cheryl and Toni but before she can send it, she hears the babies crying outside. Sitting the stack of plates and glasses on a round table she quickly makes her way to the door. Veronica meets her halfway in carrying her purse, followed by Archie juggling several pizza boxes and two large reusable bags.   
Moving past her best friends, she follows the sound of her crying babies. She meets them at the car, Jughead having already liberated Juniper from her carseat and, as usual, she had nearly completely settled in her father’s arms. As Jughead stepped back from the car door, Toni pressed a kiss to the baby’s head as she reached back into the car to retrieve the diaper bags, addressing her daughter, “Oh I see Junebug, you just love your daddy the best don’t you?” Smiling with a pride that he did know was possible a month ago, Jughead snuggled his girl closer, “Yeah, and Daddy loves her too.” Betty crosses to him, holding her boy close, kissing him before kissing Juniper’s head. “Come on babies, it’s time for dinner,” she leads them back into the bar as Juniper starts clapping and squealing. As Jughead walks past Sweetpea the taller Serpent starts laughing, “Is that baby cheering for food?” He asks incredulously.   
Jughead’s smile never leaves the baby as he answers “Yep. Yes you are, aren't you babygirl?”  
Leaning in Sweetpea asks, “Dude, are you sure you aren’t her real father?”   
Jughead’s scathing look is nullified by Archie’s peels of laughter from the bar, “I know right,” he coughs out between laughs, “I didn’t think anyone else loved food as much as Jughead!” At this point both Archie and Sweetpea are in tears that the baby i still clapping and laughing. Rolling her eyes, Betty takes the baby from Jughead and brings her over to the table where Cheryl is already feeding Jason from a jar.   
“This is why she shit on you,” Jughead deadpans to his best friend with a straight face. This sets Sweetpea off again, “Dude the baby shit on you?” He slaps the redhead on the back as they continue to have a conversation comprised of snorting laughs and muttered grunts. Jughead just shakes his head and walks around the bar to retrieve several bottles of water and several bottles of beer, happy that his friends are getting along for now. Sitting all of the bottles down on the table that Betty had set up earlier the room took on the visage of normalcy. Betty and Cheryl are still feeding the babies and Toni had gone to grab the Pac and Play out of the car so he grabs the diaper bag and pulls out supplies to change their diapers and two clean onesies with matching sweatpants and socks for after they finish eating because, as usual, they were getting quite a bit of their pureed vegetables on their faces and clothes. Looking to his left, he sees Toni has set up the pack and play and that the babies were nearly finished with their dinner. He walks over and grabs Dagger while Betty finishes up with Junebug. Quickly stripping the baby and he talks to him as he wipes the green goo off of him and changes his diaper, “Did you enjoy your dinner Dagger? Did you?” he removes his diaper and looks around for the antibiotic cream that they need to use for his bottom. He doesn’t see it so he asks, “Hey Bets, do you know where his cream is?   
His question draws the attention of the others and he can hear Archie and Veronica gasp at the sight of the boy’s skin littered with blistery looking red sores, swollen and painful looking and now in everyone’s view as the baby rolls over onto his belly entertaining himself with a teething ring. It is Sweetpea’s tightly controlled question that makes him turn, “Who the fuck did that to him?”  
Jughead is spared answering for the moment when Betty grabs the cream out of a side pocket of the diaper bag and hands it to him. While he tends to the baby’s wounds, she answers Sweetpea, “Chic,” the tall serpent turns to her, his face showing his confusion, “the freak that posed as my brother a few months ago. He was the one behind the Gargoyle king mask, taking orders from Penelope Blossom, pretending to be Jason. She gave Dagger to Chic because she was pretending that he was Jason so of course he should have Jason’s son. Crazy bitch,” Betty tries to control her rage at her ‘auntie’, “Anyway, he left him alone in his flophouse apartment for over a day. His urine did that to his skin.” She wraps her arms around herself as Jughead finishes dressing the now clean baby. “When Jughead found him he was going into shock. We are just so lucky that,” she stops that thought as tears fill her eyes. Veronica crosses to her and hugs her best friend, “We found him B. He is safe now and so, so loved. Neither of them will ever be in that situation again.” Nodding into the hug, Betty smiles her thanks as she pulls away, squeezing her hand before taking Juniper from Toni and cleaning her up and changing her. Once the babies are settled in a blocked off play area with some toys, the teens all make short work of the pizza, keeping their conversation light. As the boxes are collected and beers are refreshed Veronica calls everyone to order, “Okay, so I am assuming that we are all here for a reason,” she leaves the question hanging.   
“Yeah,” Jughead leans back in his chair, “Well we needed to check over the bar to see what kind of repairs that we are looking at.”  
“How bad is it?” Archie leans forward having already offered his help with the restorations.   
“All in all it is not too bad, a couple of weeks and the Serpents will have this place in order.” He answers.   
“And,” Betty returns to the table, sliding into the chair beside Jughead after checking on the kids. “We found a secret tunnel in the basement.”   
“What? Like the one under the Sisters?” Cheryl tilts her head.   
Nodding, Betty continues, “Yeah, I think that they may be connected. It would make sense that Hiram bought the Worm because he could make his drugs here and deliver it to the Sisters to be tested on the patients without drawing any attention to the Ghoulies movements.”  
“‘S smart,” Sweetpea commented taking a swig of his beer. “I mean evil, but smart.”   
Nodding Veronica looks to him, “Well that pretty much sums up Daddy.”   
The look on his face makes it clear that he had completely forgotten that she was Veronica Lodge because he only knew her as a perforary person to the Queen.   
“Speaking of which,” Jughead leans forward, crossing his hands as he considers the best way to start this conversation. “There is another reason that we are having this meeting here.” He looks to each of them and they all nod in support, “The feds are clearly watching us and I don’t know if we are safe to have this conversation at home.”  
“Yeah,” Betty nods, “Brother or not, more feds are the last thing that we need in this situation.”  
“Not to sound dumb, but what exactly is this situation?” Archie takes a long drink of his beer, hoping that the bubbles settle the nerves in his stomach.   
“Well,” Jughead takes a drink of his own, needing a moment, “There is currently a power vacuum in Riverdale and if we don’t step up and fill it, someone else will.”   
“Agreed,” Veronica’s face takes on a calm contenance. Standing she walks behind the bar, looking through the cabinets while still in earshot of the others. After a moment, Toni joins her, pulling a key from around her neck and opening a small door behind the bar.   
Ignoring the girls Jughead continues, “We have problems on three fronts from the way I see it: the business ventures left behind by Hiram and Penelope, the Farm, and the feds. We need to figure out the threat posed by each of those elements and formulate a plan to counter them.”  
Nodding, Cheryl crosses her arms, “We need to get organized, figure out all of the possible information that they have that can be used against us,” she is interrupted by Toni and Veronica returning with four glasses of red wine handling one to Cheryl and one to Betty, Veronica taking a deep dought of hers before adding, “And we need to honestly decide how far we are willing to go to save this town. There is a thin line between doing what is best for others and doing things solely because they are good for you. Between saving Riverdale and wanting to own it like my father does.”Archie reaches over and takes her hand, kissing the back of it.   
“Which is why we need to be completely transparent with each other from the start, that way nothing can be used to separate us or blackmail us.” Betty offers her friend a soft smile, “Everyone else who has tried to run this town did it through selfishness and fear. Your dad, my dad, the Blossoms, they all wanted to strip everything that they could out of Riverdale, but that is not who we are or why we want to save the town. We also have each other, both to work together to overcome the challenges that we face but also to keep each other from going too far down the rabbit hole.”  
“Agreed,” Cheryl says as everyone else nods.   
Resting her elbows on the table,Toni says, “I know that everything is pressing but from what I know about the Farm, their game is blackmail. Every member of the farm has to do these recorded confessions,” Cheryl and Betty nod, both knowing where this is going, “If Evernever sees us as a threat he will use these recordings to shut us up or hurt us,” looking around she finishes, “We need to know what he has on each of us, what he can use to try to control us.”   
“She’s right,” Betty sighes, “Kevin and Evelyn already tried to use my mom’s confession against me. They said that they would turn her confession over to the police if I did not drop my story looking into the farm.”  
“Wait, seriously?” Veronica sneers, “Kevin did that? For some farmies that he had known for five minutes?”   
Taking a sip of her wine, Betty’s eyes find Cheryl, “Yeah, but I’ve done worse. Kevin was in a bad spot after Moose moved, and I wasn’t being the best friend that he needed.”   
“That doesn’t make it okay, B,” Veronica grabs her wrist, “He threatened your mom.”  
Cheryl reaches over the table to take Betty’s hand, “What he did was wrong, your past actions to me have nothing to do with Kevin being a shitty friend.”  
At her girlfriend’s words, Toni looks between them, “What do you mean, what did Betty do to you?”  
Shaking her head, Cheryl looks away from her girlfriend, “It doesn’t matter, we have talked about it and we are working on moving past it.” Her tone is sincere but Betty knows that honesty in the group starts here, “Yes Cheryl and I have discussed this and we are working on getting through it but if we are asking for complete honesty, you guys have a right to know.” WIth a sigh, she looks around, her fear at their reactions evident in her wide green eyes, “When F.P. was in jail and it looked like he was going to go away for 20 years I blackmailed Cheryl. I told her that if she didn’t testify for F.P. and encourage the judge to shorten F.P.’s sentence that I would release the video of Clifford killing Jason to the press.”  
“Whoa,” Veronica whispered under her breath taken aback by Betty’s words.  
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Toni’s disgust was written all over her face.   
Betty pulls her hands from the table, nails digging into her palms as she tried not to cry.   
“How dare you use her brother’s murder to manipulate her!” Toni stands, her fists on the table supporting her as she leans over the table, fighting her urge to kick the blonde’s ass.   
Cheryl slides her hand across Toni’s lower back, “Baby, it’s okay.” She whispers.   
Turning her head to look at her girlfriend, Toni scoffs, “No the fuck it’s not. You just don’t do that shit to people.” Turning back to Betty, she continued, “Her father murdered her brother and then killed himself. In front of her. And you threatened to send a video of that to the tabloids so that they could attack her and drag all of her family’s sins into the public!” Spinning to her right, she finds Jughead’s wide eyes, “Did you know about this?”  
This sparks Betty into moving, “No,” she stands and leans to catch Toni’s gaze, “No. Toni, no he didn’t know. He never knew.” With a sigh she tries to organize her thoughts. Cheryl takes the momentary pause to intervene, “Baby,” Cheryl stands reaching out she turns Toni’s face to her own, “Betty and I are working through it. She has apologized,”   
“Apologized?” Her eyes widened, she turned to face Betty again, “You can’t apologize for doing something that fucked up!” Noticing the stress in the room and the volume of the girls, Dagger starts to wail. Turning quickly, Cheryl runs to the playpen and lifts the upset baby, Jughead following suit and picking up Juniper. Rocking her boy, she holds him close to her chest rubbing his back as she whispers, “It’s okay baby, you are okay. You are safe and loved. Did your Mama and Agi arguing scare you?”  
At the baby’s cry all of the fight wilts out of Toni as she reaches for her son. Cheryl gently passes the baby to Toni, pressing a kiss to his head before pulling her girl in for a kiss. She tries to pour all of her thanks and love into that small gesture. Pulling back, she smiles and says, “I’m okay. We are working through it.”   
Nodding, Toni holds her baby closer, “Shhh, it’s okay Dagger. Agi didn’t mean to scare you.” At his mother’s words and the gentle sway of her body he melts into her, calming down completely. The baby’s wide green eyes bring a smile to Toni’s face as he reaches up and tangles his fingers in her purple tresses.   
As the tension in the room dissipates, Jughead, still holding his girl, speaks in a very controlled and calm voice, “Toni, I totally get where you are coming from, and if the situation was reversed I can’t imagine how I would feel, but if this is going to work, we need to leave the past in the past. We need to leave it all here tonight. I know that you two have talked and that you will continue to work through the issues there but,” he takes a moment to look around at each of them, “we are a family.” Pressing a kiss to Juniper’s forehead, “We have been entrusted with the perfect little people and that means more than any past sins. Tonight is about getting everything out so we cannot be broken by outsiders trying to tear us apart.”  
With a deep sigh, Toni nods, “I agree.” She turns to Betty, “I do not agree with what you did and it is going to take me awhile to work through my anger.”  
“I understand,” Betty sat back down, “I hate what I did and I know that there is no excuse but I did it to help Jughead. We all felt helpless to help him and his dad. He was in foster care and had already been sent to another school but with the tension with the Ghoulies I thought that the only way to protect him was to get F.P. out of jail. My means of doing that were unforgivable.”  
Nodding, Toni continues “For now let’s drop it and get on with this,” Pushing her hair back, she takes a deep breath, the weight of her boy in her arms helping her focus on the topic at hand. “The only things that I confessed to Edger about were personal family stuff that no one cares about and how guilty I felt about the break ins that Chery and I did.” Looking over to Veronica, she realizes for the first time that one of the homes that they broke into was hers. “I am sorry about that,” she offers awkwardly.   
Shaking her head, she dismisses the idea, “No worries, I didn’t live there and defacing my father’s creepy ass portrait was golden!”  
“I thought so,” Cheryl chuckled. Looking around, she adds, “My interaction with Edger was super weird. Betty, you heard the whole interview where he basically asked some surface level questions and decided that I was cleansed by water and fire and that I should join them. I did admit to burning down my house.” Looking around she remembers that not everyone at the table had been aware of that. “Yes, okay, I burned down that gothic monstrosity. It was filled with painful memories and death.”   
Shaking his head, Jughead chuckles, “I didn’t know arson was genetic.”   
Waving her hand at him, Toni says, “Wait, what? “  
“Oh, I tried to burn down my house when my mom sold it.” Betty responds like that was not a big deal, “And I burned down Jug’s trailer after his mom turned it into a Fizzle Rock lab.” Everyone turned to Betty with a look of shock, the most shocked being Sweetpea. He just never expected to hear that from the blonde. Looking back and forth between the two girls he whispers, “Wow,” as if they had just admitted to being aliens, “That is strangely hot.” Toni and Jughead reach out to smack him as Archie laughs at them all.  
In an effort to move this along, Veronica takes charge, “Okay, so Edger probably doesn’t know about that. What else could he know from the confessions from his followers?”  
“Well, like I said earlier, I know that my mom confessed,” she looked around, her fear at their reaction clear on her face. Jughead, still holding their daughter in one arm, reaches over and takes her hand, nodding for her to continue, “Um, when Chic was living with us he brought a few sketchy people around and was super creepy and that freaked me out. It’s why I moved into the Jones’ but then my mom made me come home. One night I came home and,” Betty’s breathing is picking up and her fingers curled, the nails of one hand sinking into her palm and the other into the back of Jughead’s hand.   
“Betty, baby look at me,” Jughead looks to Archie who is already in motion pulling Betty’s chair out. Jughead kneels in front of her, Juniper still cuddled into his chest, “Betty, breath,” he doesn’t realize that the baby is moving until her tiny hand touches the back of his where it is laced with Betty’s. The baby makes grunting grabby hands letting everyone know that she wanted Betty to hold her. That is enough to break into Betty’s impending panic and she takes several very deep breaths and releases Jughead’ hand. He smiles at the baby, who is trying to pull herself up onto Betty’s lap, “Do you want your Mama to hold you?”  
She responds with another grunt and a babbling string of syllables, they all chuckle, “I think that she is trying to tell you that she wants you.” Toni smiles at the baby.  
Betty offers her a small smile and takes her daughter in her arms. The baby snuggles against her mother’s shoulder and Betty rubs her back soothingly, “I love you Junebug,” she whispers into her red curls. Sighing she looks to the others, “I came home and my mother was cleaning blood off the floor. She just looked up at me, wearing the same gloves that she uses to do the dishes, and asked if I locked the door behind me,” she scoffs and breathes in the light lavender smell of the baby shampoo she used to bathe the babies. Allowing the weight of her baby against her chest and the smell of her calm her, she continued, “The shady man that ran the flophouse that Chic was staying in had showed up at the house and attacked my mom. Chic beat his head in with a lamp.” She braves a look at her friends, they are all listening with rapt attention and concern but without judgment. “I helped my mom clean up the mess and we disposed of the body.”   
Waving her hand in front of her and closing her eyes for a moment before opening them and staring at Betty, Cheryl interrupted, “Your fake brother caved in a guy’s skull in your living room and your mom’s reaction was to clean up the evidence and dispose of the body instead of calling the police?”  
“She was scared that the cops would take Chic away and she didn't want to lose him again. The guy was a drug dealer and who knows what else but mom thought that the only way to protect her son was to clean up the situation.”   
Leaning back, Toni shakes her head muttering, “Shit, for the first time I can actually picture her and F.P. together.” Looking at her girlfriend she quickly amends, “Sorry baby, I didn’t mean it like that.”  
Waving her hand in a dismissive gesture she answered, “No, I get it. What I don’t get is why the hell your mom involved you in her son’s mess.”  
Shaking her head, Betty continued, “I can’t condemn her because I did the same thing,” looking to her boyfriend she reached her free hand out, to take his. He took over the story. “Betty told me about it the next afternoon. We realized that the guy’s car was still in front of their house when an officer asked us about it. Obviously we couldn’t leave it there so we took it to the lake, cleaned it and pushed it in.”   
“Wait, that was you two?” Archie asks, shocked that he missed the illegal extracurriculars of his two best friends.   
Nodding, Jughead resists rolling his eyes, “Yep. Unfortunately the car was found.”  
“Jug,” Betty whispers, tugging slightly at their joined hands. Shaking his head, he says, “No, no secrets. If we are telling the truth, then we are telling all of it.” With a sigh she nods. “After the car was found my dad got involved. He helped us dispose of the car and Dewayne in a more permanent way.”  
“No one would have ever known anything if my mother hadn’t told the freaking Farm. I have no idea why she told them or how much she told them. In the context of her being undercover I don’t know why she would have admitted to a crime and implicated all of us. I just,” her voice breaks for a moment as her emotions threaten to overtake her, Veronica slides an arm around her and Jug squeezes her hand. “Sorry guys, I just, I don’t,” she snuggles her baby for a moment, “I don’t get why she would have put me, Jug, and his dad in danger to help the FBI and get Polly back.”  
“Not to defend your mom,” Toni starts, “But she wasn’t really doing it for the FBI, she was doing it for your brother and to get both Charles and Polly back into her life. I don’t agree with the way she did it or the pain that she has caused you, but,” she ran her hand down their sleeping son’s back, “there is nothing that I wouldn’t do to save one of them or Cheryl.”   
Nodding, Betty blinked back tears.   
“Is there anything else that the Farm can use against us?” Cheryl asked, knowing that Betty needed a break.  
“Um,” Jughead looks to Sweetpea. The taller serpent nods solemnly, “I guess this is why I’m here?”  
Shaking his head, Jughead looks almost hurt, “No dude, not at all.” He holds the other boy’s gaze, “You’re here because you are one of the few people in the world that I trust. This room and my dad, you guys are it.”  
After a moment, Sweetpea nods and Jughead begins their story, “Um, after everything went down with you two and Fangs,” Jughead looks at Toni and Cheryl, trying to keep his face neutral, “We found out that the Ghoulies had been absorbed into the Gargoyles, a new gang that was pushing Fizzle Rocks and every other drug on the market and I knew for damn sure that this new business wasn’t a board game flooding this town and several others with drugs a part of a quest. I pulled Fangs back in and he went undercover in the Gargoyles because it was public knowledge that I had taken his skin for dealing. Once he was in, he passed along meeting information and we raided a meeting and took down the “King”. “  
“Wait,” Toni shakes her head, “There were two Gargoyle kings? Not just Chic?”  
“Yeah, I guess. I can’t tell you what was happening at that point with Chic, but the King that was running the drug distribution was Tall Boy.”  
“That two faced motherfucker,” Toni’s voice was full of venom even as she cradles her son gently, ”I never liked him and he never understood loyalty.” Veronica suddenly saw a strength in the girl that she respected.   
“Agreed,” Jughead nods at her, but Sweetpea has turned a paler shade of gray than Toni had ever seen.   
“So, did your dad arrest him?” Archie gives him a confused look, “I thought that he tried to shoot everyone at the debate and then shot my dad again before Sheriff Mineta killed him.”  
With a tilt of his head Jughead stood and began to pace, “He did pose as the fake black hood, unfortunately he didn’t know that the real blackhood was being arrested across the street. But, he wasn't killed by Mineta, he just went into hiding for a bit until he could be of use again. They were working for the same man.”  
“My father,” Veronica crossed her arms over her chest looking down, “Dios mio, is there any awful thing that has happened in the last two years that my father hasn’t been behind?” She fought tears as she thought about how much destruction her father had caused.   
Feeling Betty take her hand, the other firmly in Archie’s she doubles her efforts to blink back her tears, “V, we agreed, our parents’s sins are not our own. No one here is going to judge you because of your parents, we are all here to overthrow their hold on this town and save Riverdale.” Reaching over Betty turns Veronica’s face, “We’re in this together.”  
Leaning forward a bit, Toni added, “In unity there is strength.”  
Offering both girls a watery smile Veronica nods and Jughead finishes his story. Sweetpea gives further details as needed about Tallboy’s death and the subsequent coverup of his death and Hiram’s attempted murder.   
As Jughead looked around at his friends their faces are various shades of confused and accepting. All but Betty, who knew the whole story and had spent the last few minutes making bottles for the babies who were both going to be hungry soon. Returning to the table she hands Toni a bottle, pausing to press a kiss to Dagger’s blonde head before taking her seat and letting Juniper get her chubby little hands on the bottle. Her excited squeal as Betty brings the bottle to her lips makes everyone laugh and completely breaks the tension.   
Still smiling at the babies Cheryl starts, “Okay, first, Jughead you are never in charge of lying to the cops, because you suck at it,” at everyone’s laugh she continued, “But that was a solid coverup plan, particularly because it was on the fly,” She hoped that she didn’t sound condescending.  
Chuckling at the acceptance in her tone he agrees, “Yeah, lying is not my best skill,” looking around he continues, “I mean I think that is how this is going to work. We all have weaknesses but we all also have strengths. I should not talk to cops, Sweetpea is never allowed to handle guns again,” Sweetpea chuckles, nodding and tilting his beer to the Serpent King.  
“Um, if everyone is down, Cheryl and I could do weapons training with everyone. I am all for not using weapons if at all possible but if we need them then everyone needs to know how to safely handle them.”  
Leaning forward, Archie adds, “I could help with that too. Hand to hand is an important skill. I can train people at the gym. I can get Maddog in on that too if everyone is okay with that.”   
“I’d be into that,” Sweetpea leaned forward as well, Veronica could not repress a small smile when she thought of the last time those two exchanged blows. Hopefully this time she won’t have to break them up with a firearm. Veronica and Archie confess all of the shady stuff that they had done over the last year that could blow back on them or be twisted into something to create division between them. As they finish, there is a moment of silence before Betty speaks up, “Okay, so V, when do you need to collect the vigs? I mean you did it when your father was in the hospital so now that he is locked up it would make sense for you to do it again.”   
“I guess, but at this point I don’t know what Daddy has told them, how much pull he has from in there, or his reaction to me taking over things. I also don’t know what he has on my mom and he will absolutely use her freedom as a way to control me. I have a meeting with my mom’s lawyer tomorrow morning so hopefully I can get some information.” The desperate sadness in her voice is heartbreaking.   
Squeezing her hand again, Betty says, “V, we are all with you. We will figure out how your father got your mother arrested and end his reign of terror once and for all.”  
Nodding she very unladylike wipes her nose on her sleeve and smiles, “Thanks B, thank all of you. I don’t know where to start but I appreciate your willingness to help me.”   
Jughead crosses his arms and shares a probing look with Toni, at her subtle nod, he says, “I have an idea about where to start with your Dad. If he is still pulling strings from the inside then he has people working for him. We need to know who and how they are communicating. Tomorrow you go talk to your mom’s lawyer and see what you can find out about the evidence chain and if there is any actual evidence or witnesses. If it is just a situation of bribes like he did in Archie’s trial then we can deal with that, if it is loyal soldiers then we will come up with another plan.” Taking in Veronica’s very tense form he knows that she is ready to crack, “I would suggest that you bring a neutral party with you.”  
“I’ll be there,” Archie looks up as his best friend, not really following his train of thought.  
Catching on to what Jughead was suggesting Cheryl smiled to the table, “No worries Archie, you can be the emotional support and I will be there to ask the hard questions and make sure that no inquest goes unfollowed.” Her efficient peppiness seemed nearly foreign to the group who had gotten to know the real, empathetic, brilliant girl who laid beneath the glossy veneer.   
“Thanks Cher, I think that is a good idea,” Veronica smiled. Archie echoes with a “yeah.”   
“Okay, so Varchie and I are going to the lawyer’s office, Betty are you good with taking the babies to the doctor by yourself?” Cheryl’s need to organize everyone showing through.   
“Yeah, I can do that,” She smiled.   
“Wait, the babies have to go to the doctor?” Veronica is genuinely concerned, “Is something wrong? Are they okay?”  
Nodding Betty smiled down at the baby in her arms, asleep but still holding tightly to her bottle, “They are okay, we have Jason’s follow up appointment with his pediatrician to make sure that the infection is clearing up and that he is healing the way he should. We went ahead and made the appointment for both babies so we can double check that they are healthy and where they should be developmentally. We also need to figure out vaccinations. Evelyn made a whole big deal about not getting a flu shot and I found notes about them not having been vaccinated because the Farm didn’t believe in it.” She cannot suppress the eyeroll that came with that idea.   
“Betty, you are going to bring both babies to get shots by yourself?” Toni’s concern is clear, “What time is their appointment?”   
“11, but we’ll be fine,” Betty tries to sound convincing but she is not looking forward to it. Honestly she is scared that the doctor is going to give her bad news and tell her that something was the matter with her babies and she really didn’t think that she could handle that.   
Shaking his head, Jughead knows exactly how scared his girl is of the doctor’s visit because they are all scared of the same thing. “Toni, you up for an early ride?” His tone makes it clear that the ball is in her court. Offering him a small, grateful smile, she nods, “Yeah, let’s leave first thing and we can be there when visiting hours start.”   
He nods his appreciation to her. The moment is broken by Archie, “Wait, where are you guys going?”  
Jughead and Cheryl give twin perturbed looks at the redhead’s question because he had totally missed the way that Jughead had studiously avoided putting Toni on blast. The lilac haired girl cut off any sharp words from them by saying, “we’re going to do some recon on what contacts Hiram has in the prison.”   
“How are you going to do that?” The ginger boy continued.  
“By talking to one of our guys on the inside,” Jughead hoped that his answer would satisfy his friend; alas it did not as Archie followed that up with, “but the Lodges own the prison, how are you going to get someone to talk to you under his guards’ watch?”   
“Because,” Toni’s voice was exhausted, “Serpents are loyal to each other, that doesn’t change once you go inside. The crew protects your family and provides when others do not or cannot. In unity, there is strength. We always have each other’s backs. Unfortunately we all lost sight of that a bit.” With a sigh she added, “If a member is inside, they can still help the club by becoming the eyes and ears of the place, and trust me, no one is better than War Baby at getting people to talk to him or collecting intel on a target.” Shrugging she also added, “And he is my father so he will listen if I am the one asking.”   
“T, you don't have to do this, I can meet with War Baby on my own or I can take Pea,” Jug steps toward her.   
Looking down at her son and then at her other hand, entwined with Cheryl’s, she finally looks up to him shaking her head she smiles, “No, I’m fine. He is more likely to listen if it is both of us because he hasn’t dealt with you as King so he will be reluctant and we don't have time to let him warm up to you. We need to know what the coming storm is and how Hiram is getting messages out and who his agents are in Riverdale.”   
“Okay,” Jug nods, “It's a plan.”   
“Anything else for the table?” Jughead asks, trying to keep his voice light to lift the mood.  
“Actually,” Archie leans forward, resting his elbows on the table, “I am not trying to dampen you guys’ reunion with your brother, but did anyone else get a super weird vibe off of him?” He looks around, “Like particularly the way he was staring at Betty?”   
After a beat, Cheryl speaks up, “Yeah, I noticed. He seemed like he was looking at Jughead as if he was a perp, but from the moment Betty entered the room he was transfixed. I thought that maybe I was reading too much into it but it was,” she searched for a word to describe the FBI Agent, “Off. Like I can’t pinpoint it, just strange.”   
“Exactly,” Archie gestures towards her, “When he was with Jug and I, he was studying us as if he was trying to collect evidence. He was looking around at everything in the house and he kept staring at my scars and the tattoos. I assume he knows that they are gang tattoos from the way he was staring but then he said that weird thing about Juniper,” he looks to Jug who nods, “Yeah he said that she really does love me, like he was surprised about that. I noticed him staring at the baby and that creeped me the hell out but I did notice a shift in his demeanor when Betty entered the room.”  
“Yeah, when you walked over to her, his face was,” Archie was frustrated with his limited vocabulary sometimes, “It was, like jealous and concerned, is the only description I can give it.”   
“Honestly, after we sat down I was so much more focused on the brother bombshell that I really didn’t pay particularly close attention.” Betty offers. “I am not playing this game again with a creepy big brother. I know that he came in thinking that his announcement was going to have a big reunion but brother or not, I don’t trust him.”   
“Neither do I,” Jughead reaches over and plays with her fingers. “Like I said, aside from my dad, everyone I trust is in this room.” Taking a breath, he continues, “I say we avoid being alone with Charles until we know his deal is.”   
“While your interaction with your brother is your business,” Sweetpea pipes up, “He is an FBI agent and he may be a good resource to find out what the Feds actually have on the Farm, the Lodges, and the Serpents.”  
Betty shocks the tall young man when she agrees, “He is a useful tool and if he actually is here to build a relationship with us then maybe he will be willing to talk to me. If he was staring at your tattoos then he either already knows that you are Serpents or he will shortly know. What we need to find out is how he feels about that fact, what he intends to do with that information, and what his motives actually are. I am done with reacting to situations as everything I love gets blown apart.” Looking at each of her friends, she continues, “I refuse to let the endless flow of bullshit in this town hurt our kids. If Charles is here to join the family, I am willing to give him a chance, but he is going to have to earn my trust.”   
They all nod, Cheryl speaking, “I have an idea, if you're comfortable with it,”she leans forward, “He has been working with your mom for months and it was clear that he cares about her, or at least finding her, it also seems that he may not know that you are a Serpent so you may be able to go to him as the scared daughter and sweet new sister to find out his feeling about the Serpents,Jughead, and get his intel on your mom. We haven’t cracked her code yet so that could be the thing that you use to pull him in.”  
Nodding Betty agrees, “Yeah, I had a similar idea. F.P. mentioned that he is working out of the Sheriff's office with the other Feds right now and that is on the same block as Dr. Wexler’s office so I can stop by and ask for his help.” Shifting the sleeping baby in her arms she smiles unconsciously at the beautiful baby, “I mean who could refuse my precious wing babies?”  
Toni chuckles as she snuggles her boy, “Cooper that is the cheesiest thing that you have ever said.”   
Still laughing, Betty nods and Archie and Jughead stand to collect the trash on the table, the redhead adding, “Totally true.”  
“Hey you are just jealous that you don’t get to snuggle them,” the blonde laughs back.  
“Speaking of,” Veronica’s eyes widen in excitement as she pulls a yellow wrapped box with a white bow out of one of the bags that she brought in with her, “a gift for my two favorite soon to be God babies,” she smiles at them in the same smile she always has when she gets to give gifts and coyly names herself their Godmother. She produces two more boxes, green which goes to Lydia and lilac that goes to Toni, and a bag that is yellow with white polka dots. As the boys return to the table they both look at the colorful boxes on the table, “Um,” Jughead begins but he is cutoff as Veronica thrust a bag into his hands. Looking down to the bag and then to his girlfriend who explains, “V bought gifts for the babies.” Nodding he says, “Thank you,” awkwardly to the brunette before sitting down beside Betty.   
Clapping her hands, Veronica squeals, “Open them.”   
The girls all make quick work of their boxes. Cheryl pulls out a tiny River Vixens uniform complete with cheer shoes. The redhead lifts the outfit, her face flooding with genuine joy, “Oh my goodness!” She says at a pitch that could scare bats. “That is so cute!” Betty responds at a similar pitch. Looking at Toni, she gestures, “What’s in yours?”  
The other girl chuckles as she opens her box gently so as to not disturb the sleeping baby in her arms. Once she flips the top off the box she can see blue fabric, reaching in she smiles softly as she pulls a tiny Riverdale High letterman jacket out. It is embroidered with the name Jason Blossom over the left breast. “Aw my goodness, Veronica that is so sweet,” Toni smiled at her.   
“Well I figured that they should be properly dressed for the game on Friday if they are going to be cheering on their Moms, Uncle Archie, and Tia Veronica.”   
Trying to not tear up, Betty ran her hand over her daughter’s head, “V, where did you find this stuff, and so quickly?”  
“I have my ways,” she smiled a sly smile adding, “Open yours.”  
Smiling again, Betty popped the top and leaned forward a bit finding a set of pink overalls with a long sleeved grey sweater onsie that was covered with pink hearts-- an outfit that matched one of Betty’s own. Beneath that outfit was another, this one dark washed jeans, a long sleeve t shirt with an ‘S’ on the front, a muted green and beige flannel and tiny suspenders. There were also tiny black boots and pink ballet flats. “Oh, Jug look at this,” Betty smiled and giggled with Cheryl over the baby clothes. “Great, now my children are destined to become Nancy Drew and King of the Buskers,” Cheryl jokes with no venom behind the words and they all laugh.   
“We can only hope,” Toni laughs, “My boy should totally inherit my throne.”   
Jughead is holding up the boots, marveling at their size when Veronica prompts, “Jug, don’t forget about yours.”  
Looking at the bag he offers a small smile, “Okay,” the awkward rise of his eyebrows communicates his discomfort at opening presents. Pulling the sparkly tissue paper out of the bag he reaches in to retrieve two small parcels wrapped in even more paper. Unwrapping the first one, he examines it and a nostalgic smile spreads over his face as he looks to Veronica, “Thank you,” he whispers before looking at Juniper and then Dagger.   
“Jug,” Betty looks at him, her eyes wide wanting to see what was in the bag. He finishes unwrapping the second one and holds them up. In each hand is a tiny crown beanie, one lilac and one light gray. They both are embroidered with a “JB” on the front and a Southside Serpent emblem on the back.   
“Oh my goodness,” Betty repeats in her high excited voice, “V,” she looks to her best friend as she hands the gray one to Toni before putting the lilac one on the sleeping girl in her arms. Cheryl puts the gray hat on the boy in Toni’s arms, both smiling at the baby.   
“Every prince and princess needs a crown,” Veronica explains.   
They all thank her again, the girls standing to hug her as Jughead retrieves their carseats and Betty and Toni settle the babies in them he makes his way over to the brunette, “Seriously Veronica, thank you. That was really thoughtful and,” he looks down, “your the first person who has given us anything for the babies and,” looking at her finally, “you made sure to include all of us in your gifts to our kids and that means a lot. To all of us.”  
“That is what family does Jughead,” she reaches out and takes his hand, “we celebrate blessings and that is what those two are--blessings to the family that we are all building together. Seriously, the way that Cheryl and Betty just became parents because their siblings failed at it is amazing but the way that you and Toni stepped up when most people in your shoes wouldn’t have is what makes the love that holds you all together so incredibly special. I grew up in a family where love was conditional, just a bartering tool. I know that your children will never have to question that they are loved.” Squeezing her hand he swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat. “Thanks Roni, that means a lot. But you’re right,” he turns to the rest of the people in the room who had all been not so subtly watching them, “We are a family, and that is what is going to help up in this task. In unity, there is strength.”   
“In unity, there is strength,” they all repeat. They make short work of packing everything up and saying their goodbyes until tomorrow. Archie and Sweetpea are making plans to meet up and map the tunnels, the girls plan a shopping trip, and then everyone makes their way home. To an observer the group seemed carefree, however as they exited the parking lot they each reflected on the secrets that had been revealed and the wounds that were just beginning to heal.

It is firmly the middle of the night when F.P. finally walks through his front door. As he locks the door behind him and hangs his coat he is drawn to someone singing in the living room. Looking toward the sound his breath catches in his chest. Sometimes he is overwhelmed with just how much Betty looks like her mother. In the low light of the room, through his exhausted eyes, she was easily mistakable for Alice. She held one of the babies, her hair falling over her shoulder, her legs curled under her in the chair, singing softly. The image brings his mind to Alice and their son. His son. His son who was alive and working out of his office right now. She must feel his eyes on her because she turns to greet him, “Hey,” she whispers to not disrupt the baby who is fixated on her, “how was work?”  
Offering her a half smile, he crosses to the couch so he can unlace his boots. As he sits, he realizes that she is holding Jason. “It was,” he sighs, “A lot honestly. We are still trying to track down Penelope and the Farm. Between the FBI and the lawyers, it is all just a lot.” Looking at her fully, he smiles, “Little guy fussy?”  
Smiling at the baby with a love that only a parent could understand, she shakes her head, “Not really fussy, just not wanting to sleep, so we left Jug and Juniper upstairs snoring. Are you hungry? I can warm you up some dinner. It won’t take but a few minutes.”  
Thinking for a moment, he cannot remember the last time that he actually ate. He also knows Betty well enough to know that she stress cooks, another trait that she got from her mother, and he knows that she wants to talk to him.  
Nodding he says, “Actually, that would be great. I couldn’t tell you the last time I ate anything that didn’t come out of the vending machine.” Standing he closes the distance between them, “Let me take the baby for a minute.” Still smiling at her boy, she slides out of the chair, “Dagger, do you want to go hang out with Papa?” She giggles as the baby smiles and waves his arms at her as she hands him over and walks towards the kitchen. F.P. follows her, taking a seat at the breakfast bar, the baby’s valiant fight against sleep making him smile.   
“You know Jughead used to fight sleep like this. He didn’t cry much, he would just stay awake. It drove Gladys crazy so I would take him out of the room and just talk to him so she could sleep.”  
Betty collects several things from the refrigerator as he talks. Looking over her shoulder she tilts her head, “Really? What did you talk about?”   
“Oh all kinds of stuff. Work, whatever job Fred and I were doing, the Serpents, the Army, just anything that came to mind. He never minded if my stories were lame or if I didn’t achieve the goals I had in high school. He was just happy to listen.” swaying with the baby he added, ”that is the thing about being a parent, your kids for the most part just want you to be there. To be present. To talk to them and listen to them. It took me far too long to learn that.” He admits in a small voice with more regret than Betty knew was possible. She paused stirring the leftover pasta in the pan in front of her for a moment. “You know that Jughead and JB love you and are proud of you. I know that things were never perfect but they appreciate how far you have come.” She pretends to not see the sheen of tears in his eyes before he blinks them away. “Thank you for saying that, but just do everything you can to not make my mistakes. My kids are the parts of my live that have brought me the most joy and that I am most proud of but I am hyper aware of my mistakes and how my poor choices fucked up their lives.”   
Smiling she nods, hating to bring this up at such a vulnerable moment, but she has to say this, “Speaking of your kids,” he chuckles as he looks up to her, “Subtle,” he smirks. Blushing she continues, “Yeah, well, I don’t think there is a subtle way to bring that up.”   
“I didn’t know that he was going to come here this morning and crash in on you guys.”   
“How long have you known?” She asks cautiously but her tone is not accusatory.   
“I knew that he was an FBI agent, he came with the team that came to work the Farm case. I didn’t find out that he was Charles until this morning, about an hour before you guys did I think. I asked him to let me tell my kids but I guess he decided that his case was more important than my family because he came here anyway when I left the office to lead the senior agents through the Sisters.”  
Shrugging as she adds the sauce and veggies into the pan, “Yeah, it was definitely a surprise. Honestly, I didn't handle any of it particularly well. Jug handled everything better and he talked to JB, explained everything. I think she is okay.”  
Nodding F.P. is quiet for a moment, knowing that her next question is coming. She sighs, tossing the pasta in the pan before turning off the burner and moving the pan. Turning to him fully she locks eyes with him, “Did you know? About my mom? The FBI informant,” she rolls her eyes and looks even more like her mother.   
Shaking his head he answers, “No, I didn’t,” with a deep breath he continues, “But I would be lying if I said that I didn’t think something was off.”   
Nodding she collects a bowl and silverware, “Okay, will you walk me through your observations. I mean, if you comfortable doing that, I”   
“Betty,” he cuts her off, seeing the confusion, frustration, desperation, and overwhelming sadness that this girl who had become another daughter to him is carrying and it breaks his heart. “Betty, she is your mom. Never be afraid to ask for answers. I love Alice,” those words seem strange spoken aloud for the first time in so long. The thing is, it was true, he loved Alice. He had loved Alice since he was 13 and she ran up to him at the ravine that they played in as kids and kissed him before giggling and running away to jump off of the dock into the water. He ran after her and felt like he would spend the rest of his life chasing behind Alice. Unfortunately the universe had pulled them in very different directions but there were moments over the past 2 years that he felt like he had never stopped chasing her. Through marriages, kids, addiction, class warfare, and gang wars there was always a thread that tied them together. Months ago he had thought that perhaps that thread had been their son. The son that he had never known about. The son that Alice told him was dead. As she sobbed in his arms, confessing her secrets, he felt that maybe that was pulling them together again, together in their grief for the loss of a child neither had been allowed to know. But then she vanished from his life again and she felt lost to him. Realizing that he had been silently staring at the baby now sleeping in his arms he finally looked to the girl across the counter as she dished up his dinner. “Um, little stuff at first. She would make comments about the Farm that just were so far from anything that she would ever say but when I asked questions she just got all Stepford and brushed off anything I pointed out. Most of the time she would be the flag carrying cult member and then there were these flashes of Alice--the real Alice. Every once in a while she would slip up and say something odd, like she told me that her work at the Farm was helping her free herself of her guilt and pain from giving up Charles and then she said that he had forgiven her,” taking the offered plate, he says “Thank you Betty,” with a smile, she rounds the counter and collects the baby so that he can take his plate to the table to eat. “Then,” he continued, “she came to my office one night and,” he took a bite to give him a moment to figure out how to word this, “When we bought the house and she had seen Gladis, she came to my office and she was the Alice I had always known. She asked me if Gladis and I were back together and if I loved her. I told her that she was the mother of my children and she broke and answered ‘what about me’, and there was something in her voice, in her raw honesty, that I just knew that there was something else going on. She refused to tell me anything but after she left I just felt like I was missing something dangerous. Maybe if I could have figured it out then we wouldn’t be in this situation now.”   
“No,” Betty shook her head, “No, this is where she wanted all of us, or at least a contingency plan that she understood could leave all of us here and we both know that there is no derailing Alice Smith if she is in pursuit of a goal.”   
Giving a mirthless chuckle, he says, “Yeah, she is a freight train when she wants something,” he eats for a few moments.   
Gently running her fingers up and down Dagger’s arm, she continues,”I don’t trust Charles,” her tone is blunt, “He is a stranger and a federal agent and I have no idea where his loyalties truly lie. I know that he is your son and I don’t want to bring you any hurt or problems. You have opened your home to me twice now with no questions asked and taken care of me when my own parents threw me away. I respect you but I don’t know him and my loyalty is to my family. My babies, Jug, Jellybean, Cheryl and Toni, you, Archie and V, that is family. I let an interloper into my family once and we all know how that ended. I can’t be that reckless again, I can’t put my family at risk again. Maybe, one day, I can build a relationship with Charles, but right now, I can not take that risk.”   
After a beat, FP responds, “I completely understand that and I am grateful for the fact that you consider us family. Your dedication to my boy is all I could ever ask for in his choice of partner. I am proud of him and I am proud of you. I honestly don’t know where I stand with Charles. He is my son, a son that I thought was dead, and I want him in my life. I need to pursue a relationship with him because of that. But I will also always protect my other children, even if it means protecting them from him. I understand your caution. I understand that you are making the only choice that you can for your family and I think that it is the only choice that you can make as a mother and as the Serpent Queen.”   
She gives a soft chuckle,”Yeah, about that,” she takes a moment to find her words, “How does our new brother feel about the Serpent situation?”  
Pausing mid bite, he tilts his head, “Honestly, I haven’t spoken to him about the Serpents at all. My contact with him has been solely focused on Alice. Why do you ask?”  
Running her fingers over the baby’s feet gently, her son centering her, “I’m pretty sure that he knows more about all of us than he is willing to show just yet. When he was here Archie noticed him clocking the tattoos on him and Jug. He didn’t say anything but there was a weird vibe about it all.”  
“How did he approach the discussion?” He asked.  
Sighing, she recalls, “He knocked on the door at like 8 o’clock this morning. V answered and he asked if I was in. I was in the shower so Jug tried to talk to him. He only wanted to speak to me, but he followed Jug around while he cleaned up Juniper who had a diaper explosion all over Archie,” both she and FP chuckle, “Poor Red,” FP leaned forward.  
“Yeah, I don’t then he will volunteer to babysit again any time soon,” she continued, “Anyway, Charles told me about his arrangement with my mom. It was only when I questioned his involvement that he actually admitted to being Charles. I don’t think he got the reaction that he wanted. I don't know what he expected but I just took my babies and got out of the room. I needed to process, just, all of that. JB was pretty upset and then Toni kicked him out when he tried to talk to Jellybean.”  
Sighing, FP nods, “I will talk to her in the morning, I’m sure she has a lot of questions.”  
“Yeah,” she nods, “the babies have a doctor’s appointment by the station. I would like to stop by and kind of feel Charles out and see what he has on mom if that is okay.”  
“Of course,” he nodded, “Is Jug going to the doctor with you?”  
“Um, maybe. He and Toni are going to see WarBaby first thing so he is going to try to meet me at the Pediatricians afterward, it really just depends on how long it takes at Shankshaw and how much of a toll it takes on Toni. Cheryl is going with V to meet with Hermione’s lawyer to try to figure out what evidence is being used against her and if that evidence implicates anyone else.”  
Taking a deep breath he runs his hands over his face, “You mean me.”  
She tilts her head and says, “Well, yes, but because we all want to have a better idea of what is coming.”   
Nodding he offers her a tired half smile, “Nothing should lead back to me unless Hermione told someone, which she can’t do without implicating herself. Even still, there is no physical evidence.”  
“You seem very sure but I don’t trust Hermione in the least and I know that she will throw anyone under the bus to save herself. She will play any angle that she needs to to get what she wants. She has done things that hurt her own child if it helped her maintain her standard of living and perceived power. She has no loyalty.”  
“All of that is true but she also can’t prove anything connected to me. There is not a weapon, bullet, fingerprint, clothing fiber, or any other physical evidence connected to me. The Army trained me to do this, I know how to cover my ass and I would never put my kids in harm's way for a job. I think this is Hiram calling in favors with corrupt agents that he has kept in his pocket.”  
“I agree. This is his way to get back at Veronica for getting him arrested. He is going to be even more pissed over the coming weeks when we start taking his territory and changing the way his organization is run.”  
Taking a deep breath, he swallows the reservations that he has about the kids being pulled further into the underworld of the criminal contingent in town. He knows that he can’t yell at them to stop and run from all of this because that was hypocritical and naive--two things that FP Jones was not. Ever the less, he tells her, “Be careful. Hiram is an arrogant pain in the ass but he is also ruthless and reactionary. Play this as a long game and he will destroy himself trying to get ahead of you all. He is impatient and even in the luxury of his private prison he is not going to serve this time easily. 20 hours a day in a cell, even with all of his amenities, weighs heavily on a man. All that time to think and become paranoid, see problems that aren’t there and conspiracy where there isn’t one.”   
Nodding, she stands. “Well Dagger is sleeping and now I feel like I finally can. See you tomorrow,” She smiles once more before turning towards the stairs. FP stands and washes the dishes that she had used to cook and serve his meal before climbing the same stairs to his bedroom. Emptying his pockets, he locks his gun away and tosses his phone on the night stand before turning to the shower. Once he has showered and pulled on flannel sleep pants that he climbs into the bed, giving over to sleep immediately, failing to notice the blinking light on his phone indicating a text message reading CAS MAC EMC Need you, love always Ally.


	11. Parenting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! I promise that I did not drop off the face of the planet or quit this story. I am an essential worker and I have been working crazy hours since March as well as being primary care giver for my family. I have been writing the whole time when I get a chance but I have faced a few snafus, like my laptop being destroyed. I have quite a bit but it is rough, so now that I have a few days of down time, I am working on breaking everything down into logical chapters, editing them, and getting them posted. I still have not seen Season 4, I am putting it off until I finish this so that the season doesn't bleed into my story, so please, no spoilers. Thank you for reading and let me know what you think!

Chapter 11

Sleep fades slowly from Toni the next morning. Allowing her limbs to stretch taunt and release before opening her eyes, she is met with Cheryl, looking even more ethereal than usual as the sun climbs through the window, encases her fair skin and crimson hair, lighting her in angelic golden illumination. Smiling up at her, Toni reaches out, her voice raw and honest as she finds herself asking, “Are you an angel?”   
Giggling, Cheryl tilts forward, her hair cascading around them, “Far from it.” She answers with a wicked grin as she runs her lips down the bridge of Toni’s nose, teasing her without kissing her.   
“Liar,” she tugs a ginger lock,” You’re my angel,” her wide eyes look playfully offended, “Kiss me and I’ll forgive you for your lies,” Cheryl smiles as she presses her lips to hers, both of them sighing into the kiss as if they had been relieved of a woeful burden  
Pushing a lock of dark hair back, Cheryl whispers, “God I love you,” as she rubs her nose against Toni’s.  
“I love you too,” the brunette returns, the words sound more like a vow than a statement, yet they still seem a hollow echo, bereft of the ability to accurately communicate the intensity of the emotion between the two women. After a moment of staring into Toni’s eyes, hoping that the open vulnerability in her eyes is enough to articulate what her words cannot, Cheryl smiles, remembering her purpose this morning.   
“I brought you coffee,” Cheryl singsongs, reaching behind her to grab the cup as Toni slides up in bed. Taking a long sip she smiles, “See, like I said, angel.”  
Sliding down on the bed so that she can rest her head in Toni’s lap Cheryl smiles up at her, “Baby are you okay about today?” She asks apprehensively, her thumb rubbing idol circles on the exposed skin of her thigh.   
Smiling down at her girl Toni twists a few of Cheryl’s loose curls around her finger, considering her response, “Honestly, I don’t know.”   
Taking Toni’s fingers out of her hair in order to hold her hand, “Babe, you know that you don’t have to do this. Jughead can go alone, he’ll be fine,” she assures her.   
With a sad smile, Toni kisses her, “Thank you for saying that but, I need to do this.” Sighing, she looks out the window, her fingers returning to playing with Cheryl’s hair, “My dad is a part of my life that I need to deal with. I realized last night that we all have shit in our past that we don’t want visited on the kids and in order to prevent that I need to face my issues with my family.” Chuckling as she sits her coffee on the bedside table, adding, “And Jones knows that so I am sure that this is his emo way of making that happen without rocking the boat by just directly saying that.”  
Giggling from her lap, Cheryl adds,”So you're saying that I wasn’t the only one who noticed your elegant side step last night about your Edger confessions.”  
Giggling she leans down and kisses the redhead. Cheryl’s eyes go wide and she dramatically grabs Toni’s wrist, “Wait, does that mean that Jughead is trying to move in on my girl? Am I going to have to kick his ass to defend my claim?”   
Toni holds her stare for like a second before she lets out a peel of laughter that leaves her gasping for breath. Her gasping leads to snorting before she can control herself. Sliding down, so that she is facing Cheryl, both still giggling, “Jughead would never,” Toni kisses her again.   
Scoffing Cheryl says, “Yeah, ‘cause he knows I can take him,” she kisses Toni’s nose, “And he is crazy in love with my cousin,” the redhead rolls her eyes as she leans back in to kiss the most beautiful girl in the world.  
Nodding and smiling, Toni giggles as she bites Cheryl’s plump bottom lip and slides her hands down Cheryl’s arms, pressing kisses down her throat. As her hands mold around the curve of Cheryl’s superior behind, the heat expands between them as they twist together, legs sliding together as Cheryl pulls Toni back up, kissing her soundly, their tongues dueling as she buries her hands in Toni’s hair. Toni pulls Cheryl’s hips closer, one hand slipping up, her fingers digging into her soft white flesh before climbing under the redhead’s white tank top. The ferver of the moment is broken when Cheryl pulls back with a groan, “Oh no you don’t,” she presses her index finger to her girl’s swollen lips, “don’t start something that you cannot finish and don’t use sex to put off Shankshaw.”  
Pouting, Toni huffs, “You’re no fun,” she nips the finger still pressed to her lips before she rolls over onto her back, watching Cheryl climb out of bed. Spinning, the redhead gives her a wicked grin, “I’ll show you just how much fun I can be tonight.”  
“Promise?”  
“Only if you are a very good girl,” she blows a kiss, pulls her shirt over her head and tosses it at Toni before dramatically closing the bathroom door. With one final huff, Toni tosses Cheryl’s shirt into an open laundry bag and drags herself to her feet and starts fixing her hair. By the time she is putting the finishing touches on her make up, Cheryl has emerged in a plume of steam, wearing a pink bathrobe that was far too cheap to belong to her. Toying with the tie on the robe, Cheryl stands awkwardly in the middle of the room. Toni watches her in the vanity mirror, a look of concern on her face as she waits for her girlfriend to speak.   
“So, I have an idea that I want to run by you.” She says softly in a rush, still not looking up.   
Sitting the powder brush in her hand down, Toni turns to face her girlfriend, nodding for her to continue. “With everything that has been going on we haven’t had a chance to talk about this but we need to make some decisions about our futures.” Cheryl is rambling out of nervousness and Toni knows that this vulnerability is hard for her. “I am grateful for Mr. Jones’ hospitality but I think that, I mean if it is okay with you, I think that we should invite Betty and Jug to move into Thistle House so that we can raise the babies together and not shuffle them back and forth between houses.”   
Toni is not sure what she expected for Cheryl to say, but it surely wasn’t this. Leaning forward she reviews,“Okay, if you are ready to move back to your house and you want to invite them, awesome.”   
Toni’s words stop at the startled look that Cheryl gives her as she makes eye contact for the first time since she came out of the bathroom, “No, baby,” she stands and crosses to her, “Thistle House is our home. I am asking if you and I together can expand that to make it a home for Betty and Jughead as well as our babies. And maybe give a room to Veronica and Archie, too.” Laughing, Toni pulls her into her lap, “I think that is a beautiful idea.” They kiss to seal the deal and decide how to ask their co-parents as Toni gets dressed in dark wash jeans, a black sweater, and black motorcycle boots. As she pulled her hair up, then let it fall, then pulled it up again in front of the mirror, Cheryl stood behind her, sliding her arms around her waist and pressing a kiss into the crook of her neck, “Calm down baby, it will be okay,” catching her girlfriend’s eyes in the mirror, she grows more concerned, “Are you sure you don’t want me to go with you?” 

Turning her head to press a kiss to Cheryl’s lips, she offered a sad smile, “Thanks for the offer, but I’ve got this. You need to go with Veronica, she needs you to watch her back.”  
“Jughead can go with her,” Cheryl can not make it through that sentence with a straight face and they both laugh a little too loudly at the thought of that. Toni shakes her head, grateful for the tension release, “I am sure that would go so well! We would come home to a yarn wall conspiracy, a mob war, and don’t even get me started on poor Archie.” They both chuckle a little too much because neither know how to assuage the uncertainty of the morning. Pushing a purple lock behind Toni’s ear, Cheryl kisses her girl once more, “Baby, I know how worried you are about this conversation with your dad, but,” she frames her face with her hands, “no matter what happens, today or ever, you are loved. The twins and I, we love you, and if your dad does not understand that, then it is his loss, but you still have a home and a family. Carry that love with you today.”  
Toni blinks the tears out of her eyes and kisses Cheryl for all that she is worth. “God, I love you,” she whispers against the redhead’s lips, before squaring her shoulders and opening the door, making her way downstairs. 

Jughead woke up to a scene that had become strangely familiar- Betty’s face, relaxed in slumber, her wild hair and the pillow creases that had pressed into her skin in her sleep make her look more beautiful than anything else he had ever seen. Dagger’s head was tucked under her chin, his breath stirring her hair as her eyes twitch open. Jughead doesn’t notice her waking up because his attention is drawn to the gentle weight of the baby sleeping on his chest, her little snores are too precious for words. He tries to stay quiet but he can't help laughing at the sound as he presses a kiss into her red curls.   
“That may be my favorite sound ever,” Betty whispers as she reaches over and rests her hand on the baby’s back, her other arm still wrapped around her boy.   
“It is pretty awesome,” he chuckles, sighing contentedly. Looking over to Betty, he reaches over and tucks an errant lock of hair behind her ear. She returns his smile, asking, “So what is your plan for today?”   
“Um, Toni and I are going to head to Shankshaw soon. We want to be there when visiting hours start at 730 and it is a 40 minute ride. I want to give her as much time as she needs to talk to her dad.” His concern for his friend is clear. With a sad resolution, he shifts his body and stands with Juniper still in his arms. Crossing the room, he gently lowers the girl to the makeshift changing table that they had set up using a changing mat on the top of Betty’s desk.   
“What’s he like?” Betty asks from the bed.   
“War Baby?” Jughead tilts his head at her question, “Um, he and my dad were pretty tight when Toni and I were little. He was always a standup guy but he has a temper.” With a sardonic chuckle he added, “He always made my dad seem like the calm, measured one, which was not easy in those days.”   
“What do you mean?” She asked softly. Even when they were kids, Jughead had been a master of redirecting any conversation that brought up questions about things that he didn't want to talk about. As she thinks back, she is shocked that, for all her inquisitiveness, he had managed to hide the fact that his dad was the alcoholic Serpent King or that he spent the better part of their fifteenth year homeless. He was much more open with her now but she could see his default caginess surface every once in a while, his brain’s need to hide things that he was embarrassed about or that he thought would make others judge him.   
Jughead looks at his still sleeping daughter as he eased her limbs from the onsie she had slept in so that he could change her diaper without waking her, everything about his girl made him smile, an expression that he was still unfamiliar with. As he completed the mundane task, he considered his answer, grateful that Betty was giving him time to answer, “It was after my dad had moved back here and gotten back in deep with the Serpents that he and Warbaby really became friends again. They had grown up together on the Southside and their fathers had both been bastards so they were looking for family in the Serpents. They had both served in the military and so they had that in common. My mom was using pretty heavily then and my parents were fighting a lot. When my dad took the mantle of King I think that he thought it would all change and for a while it did,” his shrug does little to hide the sadness in his words, “He and my mom were getting along better, he and Fred were working and making decent money. We were renting a house that was pretty nice.”   
“That place over off of Peach St?” Betty asked, he nodded and she smiled, “I remember racing you to the park on the corner and you pushing me on the swings for what seemed like forever.”  
Smiling at the memory he nodded, “Yeah, your whole face just lit up every time you went up high. I can’t believe you remember that,” they share a secret smile as they both think that it had always been just them for each other. Sure Betty had an infatuation with Archie for a while and Jughead had moments when he thought of Toni as the person that it made sense to be with but both of them had grown to see that they were meant for each other.   
“Anyway, Toni’s mom was an addict, like a really bad addict, and one day Toni got home from school and found this low level Ghoulie dealer Owen in their house. I guess he was there to sell to her or whatever, but just as Toni got home he took off and her mother started to have a seizure. She OD’d in front of Toni. She called 911 and her dad. When they got there she was just holding her mom’s hand and begging her to open her eyes. The damn needle was still in her arm,” He gets lost in the memory of his childhood friend for a moment. Betty sits up, shifting Dagger so that he is cuddled against her chest as she leans against the headboard, “Did she,” she leaves the question hanging.   
He nods sadly as he crosses to the bed and hands her Juniper and takes Jason, the baby girl snuggling into her mom’s chest and settling right back to sleep. “Yeah, she did. The paramedics tried but,” looking down at his son, once again wondering how any parent could be as selfish as his had been, as Toni’s had been, choosing addiction over their children, time and time again. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, he continues, “Anyway, the night of the funeral, War Baby tracked down Owen in a bar in Ghoulies territory. He beat him to death in the middle of the bar. No one stepped in, hell even the Ghoulies knew better than to try to step in between him and his target.” Changing the baby with practiced ease that belies the painful memories, he continues, “He pled out to manslaughter, he has served almost ten years of a 25 year bid. After everything, his relationship with Toni has been...rocky.”  
“God,” Betty has the overwhelming urge to cry for the young woman that she had once thought to be her rival, maybe even her replacement in Jughead heart. “So her mother died in front of her, her father got sent to prision, and Toni had to go live with her bigoted uncle. Jesus that is so unfair. It is amazing that Toni is the loving, well adjusted person that she is.”  
Nodding sadly, he picked up the baby, holding him close to reassure him that he was safe. “Yeah, things between her and her dad have been strained since her Uncle Will made his opinion about her sexuality known. He goes to see her dad pretty frequently and she avoids him as much as possible. I honestly don’t know when the last time she saw either of them was.”   
Looking down at her baby for a moment, Betty kisses her head and asks, “Watch out for her today.” She traps his eyes with her own, “No information is worth Toni getting hurt. If she needs to get out, get her out.”   
Crossing, he kisses her forehead, “Always,” he presses a kiss to her lips, handing the baby back to her for a moment. He quickly pulls out jeans, a thermal, and a flannel and starts pulling on clothes and looking for his sherpa jacket. Chuckling she comments, “It is weird seeing you without your Serpents jacket now.”  
Looking over his shoulder at her as he pulls the denim sherpa jacket out of the back of the closet he shrugged, “Yeah, no colors or skins at Shankshaw.”  
“How does that work,” she tilts her head, “you can’t wear the clothing but if you are locked up the tattoo is still going to be there?”  
“Yeah, it is a pretty futile attempt to keep gangs out but it is easier to leave the jacket at home, particularly when we don’t know who is spying for Hiram. Without the jackets, Toni and I can pass for two kids visiting her father. Fly below the radar as much as possible.”   
“Still,” she shifts a little as the babies, both currently laying on her chest, are starting to wake up, “Be careful.”   
Chuckling at her when he realizes that she is practically drowning in babies, he crosses and presses a kiss to her lips, “Always,” as he lifts Dagger, he adds, “I have way too much to come home to. Good morning buddy,” he tucks the baby against his chest, “Are you hungry?”  
Nodding, Betty cuddles Juniper, “I think that they both are,” as she stands and follows him out of the bedroom door. Toni is already downstairs, pouring her second cup of coffee of the day. When she hears them on the stairs she grabs two more mugs out of the dishwasher and fills them as well. Her anxiety is clear in her every movement. Jughead crosses to her nodding thanks for the coffee as he silently hands her the baby. At Dagger’s squeal of delight at seeing his Agi, her smile breaks the heavy apprehension that she had carried since she woke up this morning is lifted. Holding her boy close, she smells his hair as he rests his head on her shoulder completely content in her arms. “Did you sleep well my little prince?” She asked, his hand rubbing across her collar bone was his response causing her to smile more as she crossed to Betty, planting a kiss on Juniper’s forehead, “And you my princess?”   
“She snored the whole night,” Jughead answers as he prepares bottles for the twins.  
Chuckling Toni says, “That is the cutest thing ever isn’t it,” and Betty nods, giggling with her.   
“Yeah, but our boy here did not want to go to sleep so he and I got to spend a little quality time with Papa.” She baby talks as the baby grabs a lock of her hair.   
“Dagger, did you keep your mama up? Did you?” Toni bounces the boy on her hip and he giggles in response.   
“You talked to my dad?” Jughead asks, his real question hanging in the air, “Muhm,” she nods over Juniper’s head as she takes the bottle he hands her, “Yeah, we will talk about all of that later but I am going to take the twins by the station after their doctor’s appointment. I’d like to do some recon on what they actually have on my mom and the farm. If Archie is right and Charles is interested in what I have to say about everything then I may be able to get more information out of him about the case and maybe about who is working Hermione’s case. If we know who we are up against, maybe we can find a trail back to Hiram.”  
Nodding cautiously, Jughead catches her eyes, “The kids’ appointment is at 11, Toni and I should be back by then so I will meet you there while Toni and Cheryl meet with the Poisons. While I agree we need to do recon, I don't trust him enough to let you meet with him alone.”   
Rolling her eyes as she shifts Juniper into a more comfortable position, “I’m not meeting him in a dark alley in fog town, I’ll be at the Sheriff's station. With your dad. And a bunch of cops.” Her tone is flippant, but some part of her is apprehensive about seeing their ‘brother’ again.   
“And the babies. And me, cause I’m going to be there.” His tone is curt but not rude. She rolls her eyes and relents, “Fine.”  
Coming up behind her he slides one arm around her waist and the other around Juniper, “Plus, do you think I would let you go to the babies’ first doctor’s appointment without me? It is going to take at least two of us to get through that, particularly if they need shots today.”  
Letting her head fall back to rest his shoulder, she smiles, “I know. It’s just a lot.”   
Cheryl enters the room, dressed for battle in her pencil skirt, silk blouse, and four inch heels. “Betty, are you sure you don’t need us to go with you?” She asks as she crosses to Toni kissing her and then pressing a kiss to Dagger’s forehead. “I feel terrible missing his follow up appointment.” Crossing to her cousin, she presses a kiss to Juniper’s head as well, “And if they need shots, what kind of mother am I if I am not there?”   
“Cheryl, you are a good mom,” the blonde locks eyes with her cousin, making sure that Cheryl knows that she is sincere in her words, “The best part of this whole co-parenting thing is that there are four of us, so we can be in all places. I’ll take them this time and you can take them to their next appointment if it makes you feel better though?” She offers as the babies finish their bottles.  
“Absolutely,” the redhead smiles and nuzzles Dagger’s head, kissing Toni once more before taking the baby from her.   
Jughead kisses Betty and Juniper before walking over and kissing Dagger’s head, “Okay, T, you ready?”  
Sighing, she kisses Cheryl and the babies each once more before following him through the mud room, grabbing her helmet and a lavender pea coat that she had borrowed from Betty. With a deep breath, they made their way and out the back door. As they both put on their helmet and pull on scarves and gloves against the chilly November morning, Jughead grabs her elbow, “T, I can do this on my own if you want. No one is saying that you have to do this.”  
Closing her eyes, she takes a deep breath, letting the frigid air fill her lungs, she opens her eyes and looks into his eye, “I think that we both know that I do need to do this,” she pushes his chest a bit with a sardonic smile, “I appreciate the out Jones, but I need to do this for me. If it helps the crew, so be it, but I need to do this for me, and for Cheryl, and our babies.” Smiling at him she adds, “Our family. Even if I have to wear this God awful girly pastel coat to do it.” She rolls her eyes and he chuckles letting the subject drop and climbs on his bike cranking it as she climbs on the back, wrapping her arms around him, she runs through the things that she needs to tell her dad.   
She has decided that she doesn’t need a response from him, positive or negative, she just needs to say some things in order to release the pain that she has been carrying with her. She runs through them over and over in her head, holding tight to Jughead, letting her childhood friend tether her as she allows her words to swirl in her head. Lost in her thoughts, the ride passed far quicker that she remembered from the last time that she had been to visit her dad at Shakeshaw. It has been over two years since she had seen her dad and it was shocking how much of her world was completely different.   
As Jug parked the bike, he stayed still for a moment, his feet planted on the pavement as if waiting for her to make the choice to climb off. He hears her sniff in the cold silent stillness of the morning as she rests her forehead against his back. Wrapping his hand over hers where they still rested on his stomach, he runs his thumb over her knuckles, “T, I’m right here, and I am not going to let anything happen to you. If you want to wait out here for a while, we can. You let me know when you are ready. And the minute you want to walk, we walk okay. If you want to wait in the lobby you can.”   
She chuckles at his words and the act feels like it is breaking literal ice on her voice box,“You’re rambling Jones,” she leans back, letting go of him and wiping her nose on her sleeve as she pulls her helmet off and stands. Once she is off, he stands the bike and climbs off, removing and stowing his helmet, he turns to her and together they take a deep breath. He has been in her position before, a prison orphan visiting his dad through a layer of glass with armed guards listening in. Offering her a half hearted smirk, he takes her hand, reassuring her that he was there, as they walk into the oppressive brick building.   
From the moment they enter Shankshaw both Jughead and Toni are flooded with the overwhelming pain that hangs throughout the building. The smell of suffering and violence is thick as they are both signed in, searched, patted down in a way that is dehumanizing. By the time they are led into a visiting room by a guard Toni is shaking in fear, anticipation, and the overwhelming urge to run until her legs stop working. This time it is her who reaches over and takes Jughead’s hand, needing his calming presence. Softly she whispers, “Are they going to bring him in here?” Looking up at him, she looks so much younger, “They have never let me visit him in here, it has always been behind glass before.”   
Offering her a soft smile, he shrugs, “The Sheriff may have made a call.”  
The tears that have been threatening to fall since they left come are blinked back and she offers him a quick dimpled smile, “Did he now? I have to thank him.”   
Their conversation is cut off by the scrape of the metal door in the back of the room and the sound of metal dragging on concrete. Moments after and the door is filled with the imposing frame of WarBaby, even in the dull yellow jumpsuit and shackles, he sends a chill through Jughead. Toni squeezes his hand tighter, her fingers shaking as they are entwined with his. He squeezes back, reassuring her that he is here to support her. As WarBaby steps through the door and into the early morning light pouring through the windows of the visiting room, his face is as apprehensive and nervous as his daughter’s, the tension identical in both of them. As he comes to stand in front of them, Toni takes a deep breath of the stale air and lanches herself at her father, wrapping her arms around his waist, her arms sliding between his arms and the chains, pressing her face into his chest, allowing herself to take in the warmth and smell of her father for the first time in years. He does his best to wrap his arms around her, burying his nose in her hair, breathing her in as if he is trying to memorize her scent. Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, he whispers, “Hey babygirl.”   
Pulling back, Toni looks up at him, tears rolling down her cheeks, “Hey Daddy,” the crack in her voice breaks Jughead's heart. Toni looks like she is that sad seven year old again who had just lost her mother and was going to lose her dad. Jughead swallows back his emotions, knowing that this is not about him, but still being overwhelmed with the love and loss and pain and understanding what it feels like to be a kid visiting their father in prison.   
When the guard intervenes, WarBaby reluctantly releases his daughter and they all tentatively sit down on the uncomfortable, mustard yellow plastic stools that are attached to the tables, the whole rig bolted to the floor. WarBaby takes in the two of them for a moment, “Jughead, boy it is good to see you. Last time I saw you, you was a scrawny little kid running after my girl, Fangs, and Sweetpea in Sunny Side when you weren’t on the Northside. And look at you now, tall as your dad and the Serpent King.” The disbelief in his voice was clear and Jughead knew that he was going to have to convince WarBaby, and by way of WarBaby all of the Serpents that were locked up, that he was worthy of the mantle.   
“Yeah, a lot has changed and we are in a hard spot right now but we are all working to re-establish the Serpent’s hold on the Southside.” Jughead holds his eyes and keeps his tone calm and clear.  
Nodding, WarBaby is clearly still warey. His jaw tightening, his gaze intent on their joined hands on the table, he clenches his hands in his shackles and speaks lowly, “So, Jughead, are y’all here because you knocked up daughter?”   
The shock registered on both Toni and Jughead’s faces before they look at each other and bust out laughing, “Oh God no,” Toni chokes out and Jughead shakes his head, “No, no sir, I we,” he gestures, “War Baby, we are not together and no one is pregnant. I love Toni, and I have the utmost respect for her but we are just friends and,” he pauses, looking to Toni as the two have a silent conversation with their eyes before she nods and takes over, “Dad, I’m not pregnant and never have been but,” she pulls out an envelope that had been searched by the guards when they came in, “But,” she lays a picture of she and Cheryl, snuggling with the twins on the couch, Cheryl with Juniper on her lap, playing peak-a-boo, and Toni with Dagger laying on his chest twirling his fingers in her purple hair. “You are a Grandfather.”  
“How the hell is that?” He asked, both confused and angry that his seventeen year old daughter was telling him that she was a mother.  
“Dad,” she swallowed hard, trying to suppress tears and her fear of her father’ rejection, Jughead squeezes her hand, letting her know that he is there and will take over the story if she needs him to. She shook her head, ”Dad, you know that I am dating a girl.”  
“Yes,” in that one word, this man who seemed so much larger than life seemed to shrink before them, arching his shoulders, his fingers tensing with each breath before he looks at his daughter, ”I know that you are interested in girls. Thomas told me, and,” Toni feels all movement in the room, possibly the world, stop as he reaches over and takes her free hand, “Antoniette, I love you. Fullstop. No matter who you love, who you date, as long as they are treating you well, I completely support you. I was so angry and so ashamed of my brother when I found out that he kicked you out.” Rubbing his thumb over her knuckles, he continues, “Baby, can you ever forgive me for leaving you with him? I,” he swallowed thickly,”I understand if you can’t forgive me. Hell, I know that I will never forgive myself. It is my greatest regret. I don’t regret killing that piece of shit dope pusher. I regret what I did because it made me lose you and you lose me. I regret that even more because my brother made you feel unloved, unwanted, like there was something wrong with you and none of that is true. None of it. You are loved. You are wanted. And you are absolutely perfect, regardless of who you date,” in that moment all of Toni’s tears escaped and gripped her father’s hand tightly. “Daddy, I have waited two years to hear that. I was so afraid that you felt the same way as Uncle Thomas and that was why you stopped writing to me.”  
Her father cupped her face in his shackled hands and wiped her tears away. “Baby, nothing you could ever do would make me stop loving you. Nothing. I kept writing to you at your uncle’s house but I didn’t know until the last time FP came to visit that you were not living there still. My brother, it seems, has much to answer for in his treatment of you.” Leaning forward he presses a kiss to his daughter's head before the guard has a chance to yell ‘get back’ he nods to the guard then continues, “Now,” he chuckles, “Tell me about these babies and how they are my grandchildren.”  
Smiling through her tears, Toni drops her head down for a moment, allowing her tears to fall, squeezing her father’s hand tightly, she whispers, “Thank you Daddy. Thank you.” A huge weight lift from her that she would have denied that she was carrying until now. In order to give her some time to recover, Jughead launches into the whole story, giving him the rundown of what had happened over the last few months, Hiram, the Gargoyle King, the Farm, and their perfect babies.   
At the end of it all, War Baby, nodded, his brow tense, “So, your girlfriend adopted her brother’s babies and you are dedicated to help raise them with Jughead and his girl?”  
“Yes sir,” she nodded, pulling her hand back to lay out several over pictures of her, her and Cheryl, and lots of the babies. Picking up the first picture of Cheryl and Toni and the babies, his eyes flooded with tears and he smiled, “I am so proud of you babygirl. You stepped up to help these children out of love for them and for this Cheryl because they needed you. That is a beautiful decision.” Looking at the picture slowly, taking them all in, “You love this girl? She makes you happy?”  
The smile that flooded her face answered his question before her words did, “Yes,” she tightens her grip on his hand, “Dad, I love her so much, in a way that I didn’t know was possible. I,” she breathes deeply, “I am so happy. Happy like in a way that I never felt that I deserved. Through everything that has happened, I am so happy with her and with the family that we are building.”  
He returns her smile, “Good, that is all I have ever wanted; for you to be loved and happy.” After a beat allowing everyone to refocus, “Now, it seems that there is something else that you are here for?”  
Nodding, Jughead explains the Hiram situation in a little more detail, explaining his crimes against the Southside and the town of Riverdale as a whole. It is Toni who picks up the story to explain Hiram’s deeds against them and their friends, by the end WarBaby takes a long moment of silent reflection before he nods, “Okay, clearly this asshole is trying to take over Riverdale for some reason but he is locked up now. In his own prison?” WarBaby seems incredulous at that fact. “Who the hell let that happen?”  
“That is what we are trying to figure out. Before he was locked up, he seemed to move people around at his will. He moved guys from here to his prison, hell he even moved guys out of Juvie to his private prison to set up an underground fight club. The clincher is that all of this is taking place in what used to be our high school.” Jughead cannot resist the eye roll as he says those words. “I need you to keep an ear open for who gets moved and where those orders are coming down from. Is it a specific group or inmates with specific skills that are getting moved. There has to be some pattern to this bullshit and I cannot find it from the outside. Dad has the FBI up his ass so he cannot offer much support without alerting those blood suckers.q I know his original plan was to use the prison as his base camp to produce his drugs with his enslaved convicts as labor but that plan went awry.”  
“Wait, what happened to that plan?” WarBaby stops Jughead’s rambling.   
Chuckling, the young man answers, “His daughter actually. She stole all of his product and equipment and burned everything in an attempt to stop him from flooding the streets with that poison. She didn’t stop it completely but she did significantly slow him down. Unfortunately, now we do not know what his endgame for Riverdale is or who he is ordering to do his bidding on the outside.”  
Nodding sagely, WarBaby asks, “And are you looking to take over his business once he is neutralized?”  
Tilting his head Jughead is silent for a moment before locking his eyes with the larger man across the table, “To some extent, yes. I want the Southside back. I want to be able to take our kids to the places that we grew up at without a Goddamn prison looming over them. I want to make the Southside a place to be proud of being from, because every one of us deserves that. And yeah, a part of me wants to stick it to that smug rich bastard,” both men chuckle at the blunt truth of that statement, “but I am not taking back territory only to start charging the people I am protecting for the privilege of not having their businesses burned to the ground. That is not what the Serpents are about and I will not let us take that path. As long as I am alive, we will never produce, deal, or peddle drugs and neither will any of the Serpents. I want to save Riverdale and that shit is the quickest way to ruin something.” Looking to Toni he whispers, “We have all lost too much to that.”   
“Okay,” WarBaby looks between the two, understanding the seriousness of their decisions but still feeling that he is missing a lot of information about their relationship. “I will see what I can find out.” His stoic face breaks as he takes in the image of his daughter, wrapped in the light spilling through the window and far too beautiful for a place like this, “Now, show me those pictures of my grandbabies,” he reaches for the pictures that Toni had put on the table earlier. The smile that spread across her face could light the darkest night as she laid out a bunch of pictures, pointing to the first one, “This is Cheryl,” she looked up to her dad’s face, watching him for any indication of negativity or that he was going to change his mind, he just smiled and said, “She is beautiful.”  
Swallowing her happy tears, she continued, “She is holding our son Dagger and I am holding our daughter Juniper.”  
Her dad smiles at her, “Wow,” he picks the picture up and tries not to let his tears show, “Dagger and Juniper?”   
Jughead chuckles, “Yeah, their birth mom named them Juniper and Dagwood.”  
“The hell?” WarBaby’s eyebrows raised in disbelief before he shook his head, “I never thought I would think anyone was less qualified to name a child than your dad, but, wow.”  
Jughead laughs, “Damn straight. We decided that Juniper was not so bad but Dagwood had to go.”  
Toni laughs, “Yeah, Jason Cooper Blossom is just so much better.”  
“But his Agi started calling him Dagger and it just stuck.” Jughead finishes, bumping Toni’s shoulder with his playfully as they happily talk about these little people who have changed their whole world in just a few short weeks.   
WarBaby smiles at his daughter, “His Agi,” she grabs his hand and nods.   
“His Agi who is his favorite person on the planet by the way,” Jug adds. Toni rolls her at him as she flips to a new picture of Jughead and Juniper, the baby sitting on his lap trying to steal the pizza that he is eating, “Yeah well they can’t both love you most,” they all laugh and look through the rest of the pictures like it is a completely normal visit. By the time they climb back on the bike Toni’s heart is lighter than it has been in years. Picking up her helmet as Jug leans down to start his bike she pauses, noticing that she is not moving, he turns, “T, you okay?” he reaches out to touch her elbow. She looks down at his hand on her arm and she steps forward, melting into him in a tight hug. “Thank you,” she whispered, “for, you know, making me do this, making me see my dad. I,” she sniffs, “I would have come up with a million more reasons to not do this and it.” she sobbed, “I miss him, Jug. I thought he hated me,” she looks up at Jughead and he hugs her even tighter and presses a kiss to her head.   
“He loves you Toni. Of course he loves you, he’s your dad,” And for the first time in his life, that phrase meant something to him. A year ago, when his dad was drowning in alcoholism and his mom was in another state doing God only knows what, he was more alone than he had ever felt, he honestly didn’t think that either of them cared if he lived or died. And while he and his dad were working to repair their relationship and he and his mom were, hell he really didn’t know where they were, he still hadn’t really thought about the idea of unconditional love as a real thing. It seemed like a plot device from novels, a trite idea that was evoked as a type of deus ex machina to solve all the problems of a sad heroine or lost child. It never seemed real; love always had strings attached in his world. Unconditional love was something that was too simple to exist, something that he was too jaded to believe in-- that is until the night that he had found Jason. When he had seen the boy that would be his son in the middle of that dirty mattress in a flop house, lethargic and so close to death, he knew that he would do anything to protect him. He wasn’t sure that it was a conscious choice but he had fallen completely in love with those babies and he knew that he would love them unconditionally for the rest of his life. After a few more moments Toni pulls herself together and takes a step back. Cupping his face she presses a gentle chaste kiss to his lips, “Thanks for having my back Jones.”   
Bringing his hand up he brushes the last of her tears off her cheeks with a smile, “Always Topaz, always.” They share a smile as she climbs on the bike and they make their way back to Riverdale, neither noticing the eyes watching them intently from across the lot.


	12. Chapter 12 Ghost of the past

Chapter 12

Mary Andrews was a little less cool about her teenage son sharing a bed with his girlfriend than her husband was so Veronica had spent the night in the Andrew’s guest room/storage for all of the stuff that Archie was too old and too cool to keep in his room- room. She had tried to sleep, but every sheep she counted seemed to shout an accusation at her. They tormented her with the crimes of both of her parents. She felt like getting her father arrested and his parole revoked was a win but she knew that any win with Hiram was short lived. She knew that her actions of entrapment would be seen as an ultimate betrayal in her father’s eyes and that jailing him would only be a temporary solution. She knew that he would retaliate, but she did not expect that he would go after her mom first because it would expose the falsity of their family and damage their image to the other families.  
In their world, Hiram needed to seem beyond reproach, to have no weaknesses that could be used by enemies to destroy him. His daughter gaslighting him into being arrested would have been easy to hide from his peers as long as Hermione played the dutiful mob wife, her husband's stoic right hand on the outside like she had before, bringing Veronica to heel in private and making sure that the Lodge family stayed publicly uncorrupted.  
Now Veronica sees that that was her biggest mistake in this whole mess; she knew that she should never underestimate her father’s hubris and after the “October Surprise” scheme and after the annulment she knew that he saw her mother as a tactic, as a pawn in his game for the soul of Riverdale. Shaking her head she laughed, ”Jesus I sound like Jughead.” She rolls her eyes and climbs out of bed, deciding that sleep wasn’t going to happen at this point.   
She tiptoes her way into the bathroom, splashing water on her face, getting lost in her reflection. She looks for the pieces of both of her parents: her mother’s brow, her father’s nose, pieces of the people who created her but who had also led to the destruction of everything that she had built her life on. As the sun broke through the night and started to light the bathroom Veronica sighed at herself in the mirror, weary already and knowing that this day is only going to get more difficult. She looked away from her reflection, knowing that that way led only to madness. 

Taking a centering breath before pulling her pj’s off and moving towards the shower. She felt a blush creep up her chest as her mind was thrown back to months ago when she had striped in this same spot and climbed into this same shower with Archie the morning that his father was shot. She had never been so focused on another person, on their well being than she had that morning. She wanted to help him, to comfort him in anyway that she could because she wanted to take his pain away. It was in those stolen moments that she truly understood for the first time why people call sex ‘making love.’ She had always thought that term was cheesy and ridiculous. People had sex for control, power, pleasure, release, all sorts of reasons but love rarely had anything to do with it. While she had struggled with admitting that she loved Archie, with naming the convergence of emotions that he awoke in her, she now understands that when she climbed into the shower with him, her only goal was to let him lose himself in her; finding a few moments of peace in her body.   
Her heavy thoughts have seen her through her shower and dressing. Looking down at herself, in yoga pants and Archie’s t-shirt, she knew that Archie would not be up for at least an hour and she didn’t think that she could focus on doing her hair and make up, her anxiety making every nerve in her body twitch. She found herself drawn to the house across the street, ‘Betty is probably up with the babies,’ she thought. With a quick glance out of the window she sees Jughead and Toni leave on his bike and she grabs her makeup bag and the garment bag that she had collected from the drycleaners yesterday and makes her way across the street. They must have seen her because Cheryl opens the door before Veronica can even knock, Dagger balanced on her hip, his blonde head laying on her shoulder, she smiles enthusiastically nd chirks, “Good morning,” leading her into the kitchen, Betty meets her with a sweet smile and a cup of coffee, made just the way she likes it, “Mornin’ V.”   
With a sigh and a half hearted smile Veronica drops into a chair at the kitchen island and sips her coffee, “Morning,” she mutters.   
“Do you want something to eat?” Betty asks as she toasts bagels, Juniper on her hip, happily drinking her bottle, the very picture of contentment. Veronica envied her that.   
Repressing a wave of nausea at the mention of food, Veronica shakes her head, “No, thank you. I am not sure that I could keep anything down. I am so anxious that I didn’t even get any sleep.”  
Betty offers her a small smile, “V, we will get through this.”   
Cheryl nods her agreement, “She’s right,” she walks to stand in front of Veronica, locking her eyes with the brunette, “We will get through this. And that starts today.” Her tone becomes much more frivolous as she smiles, “Now let’s get you upstairs and dressed. Show those attorneys who they are dealing with.”  
Veronica gives her an honest chuckle and nods, allowing Cheryl to take her hand and guide her to the stairs. As they styled her hair and applied her makeup, they helped her talk through the questions that she had about her mother’s case and possible defenses. Cheryl kept a mental list of each point, knowing that she was going to be the person who kept the meeting moving because Veronica was on the verge of tears with each breath now, she knew that she was not going to be able to focus on the proceedings. Archie comes over an hour later, dressed in gray dress pants and a white button down. Looking him up and down, Cheryl crosses to him, unbuttons his top button and pushes an errant lock of ginger hair off of his forehead before stepping back and nodding, “Not bad,” she offers a small genuine smile, “you are totally passable as a ginger knight to save our princess.”   
He rolls his eyes goodnaturedly and returns her smile at the slightly backhanded compliment, “Thanks Cheryl.”   
Cheryl spins to Betty, “Do you want to shower before we leave?”  
Looking relieved she nods, “That would be awesome, I wasn’t sure how I was going to shower and deal with the twins.” She showers quickly, happy for the moments of quiet before she faces the rest of her day. Exiting she quickly dries her hair, pausing before putting it in her standard ponytail. Tilting her head at her reflection in the mirror, did she want to look like the girl next door while she brings her babies to the doctor? Would that be drawing attention to her age? Would people feel that they had the right to judge her because of her age when she walks through town with her babies? With a deep breath she resigns herself to the fact that people will probably judge her and that her hairdo would not stop it. Sighing, she pulled her hair through an elastic before walking into her closet. She grabs a pair of black overalls and a light purple long sleeved shirt with a scoop neck. She dressed quickly, tying on her chuck taylors before checking the babies’ diaper bag, adding a few things she grabs it and jogs downstairs.   
Cheryl, Veronica, and Archie are all in the living room playing with the twins, all five of them giggling. She smiles at all of them in their dress clothes, sitting on the floor, playing with the babies who were both only in diapers. “Thanks, guys,” she says as she enters the room, “I really appreciate it. Good luck today. Text me and let me know if you need anything.”   
Nodding Veronica stands and the two girls hug silently, linking hands as they pull apart, “You’ve got this V.”   
Her nervous smile never reaches her eyes, “I hope so B.” Cheryl and Archie also stand quietly behind the brunette, “Of course you have this, we all have your back.” That brings a real smile as Betty adds, “You’re Veronica fucking Lodge, walk in like you own everything and bend them all to your will.” They all laugh at Betty swearing and the tension of the morning is broken. As they make their way to the door Cheryl stops, “You’ll text me after the doctors right?”  
“Of course,” Betty reassures her, knowing that Cheryl feels like she is somehow letting their babies down by not being there.   
Closing the door behind them, Betty turns to the two nearly naked giggling babies on the floor, “Now, what do you two want to wear today?” She asks in a high pitched voice that makes Juniper clap while both babies continue giggling. Looking in the basket of clean baby clothes that she had left sitting by the couch last night she sighs, all Farm white clothes that she hated. “Well, thank God for Auntie V because Mama is not taking you anywhere in cultwear.” The babies found that even funnier and she found herself laughing with them as she grabbed the bag that had Veronica’s gifts from the night before. She quickly dressed them both, regretting her choice of overalls for today when she realized that Juniper would also be wearing them but not having time to change she rolled her eyes and said, “Yeah, we need to get you guys new clothes today.” Pulling on their coats and their matching crown hats she smiles at their overwhelming cuteness and she reaches for her phone snapping a few pictures before loading them into their carseats and making their way to the car.   
The ride is uneventful, both babies falling to sleep because it was their normal naptime, she even manages to get both babies out of the car without waking them up but as she makes her way to the door to Dr. Wexler’s office she realizes the problem with hauling two baby carriers and diaper bag-- she cannot get the door open. She locks eyes with a woman who is sitting near the glass door and gestures to the door, lifting the carriers to communicate that she couldn’t get the door open and that she needed help but the middle aged brunette made a face of annoyance and looked away. Betty is rescued by a voice from behind her, “Here, let me help you,” she turns and sees Katie Marshall, a girl who had interned at The Register and edited the Blue and Gold several years ago. She even babysat for Betty a few times before she had been able to convince her mom that she was eleven and did not need a babysitter.   
“Oh my God, Betty Cooper?” Katie’s eyes round as she smiles at the blonde, opening the door and holding it for the young mother.  
”Katie Marshall!” Betty smiled as she followed Katie through the door into the office and up to the desk. “How have you been?” Betty asks.   
Katie smiles, “I’m good. I am working here now,” she answers as she ducks around the counter and greets Janice, the receptionist. Looking into the carriers she smiles, “Wow, twins?”   
Nodding, Betty returns her smile, “Yep, they are six months old. Jason and Juniper.”   
“They are beautiful,” Betty feels her smile grow as she thanks her former babysitter before looking at the cheery blonde behind the counter.  
“How can we help you today?” Janice smiles but looks pointedly at the carriers.   
Looking at Janice Betty says, “We have an appointment with Dr. Wexler, Juniper and Jason Blossom.” Janice offers her a smile as she checks them in and hands her a clipboard, “Okay, if you will complete these forms some one will call you soon.”   
Smiling, she shifts Jason’s carrier so she can take the clipboard but everything feels very unbalanced.   
“See you in few minutes,” Katie says as she walks out of the waiting room. Nodding with a smile, Betty makes her way over to the chairs. Sitting Juniper’s carrier on one of the end tables beside a free seat, she shifts the diaper bag off of her shoulder and then moves to put Jason’s carrier into another seat without waking him up. Unfortunately her plan is foiled by a flurry of movement in the form of a toddler who runs at her screaming, “Babyyyyyyyy” whilst holding a plastic truck aloft and running at the pink carrier on the table. Betty moves to grab the carrier at the same time that the kid hits the table and grips the edge of the carrier, nearly taking it and Juniper off of the table. He does manage to launch the truck into the carrier, hitting her in the face. The baby starts to scream, both in shock from being hit and anger at being woken up.   
“Brenden,” a woman calls, “Get away from that girl’s baby!”  
Looking at the other woman briefly, Betty sees that it is the bitch that wouldn’t open the door for her. “Babbbbyyyyy'' the kid screams again and lunges for Juniper once more. Betty tries to block Jason’s carrier from the toddler while she unhooked Juniper and lifted her to inspect where the toy had hit her. His sister’s cries soon wake Jason who starts crying as well. “You’re okay babygirl. It’s okay, Mama’s got you and you are going to be okay,” Betty soothed as she lifted Juniper, easing the baby’s hands down so she can see where the toy hit her, Betty gasps when she sees blood on her face. “Oh my God,” she uses her sleeve to wipe it away but it is quickly replaced. The toddler has focused his attention on slapping the sides of Dagger’s carrier, making the boy scream louder. Spinning to face the woman who had not even tried to reprimand her child Betty snapped, “Come over here and get your kid.”  
The woman scoffs not even looking up from her phone, “It is not my problem that you're not prepared to take your babies in public. He is a child, he’s just playing.”  
“He hit my daughter and now her face is bleeding. I don’t care how old he is, that is not appropriate behavior!” Taking a breath to try to control the rage leaking into her voice, “I am plenty prepared to take care of my kids wherever we are, you have not even looked at your child since I’ve been here. Now come get your kid.”   
The older woman sighs and rolls her eyes, “Brenden, leave them alone.” Brenden completely ignores his mother’s request and continues beating his hands on Dagger’s seat. As Betty opens her mouth to yell at the woman the door swings open and Jughead walks in. He ignores the eyes of the other people in the waiting room as he rushes to Betty’s side, cutting his eyes at the little boy that was beating Dagger’s carrier, ordering the child, “Move,” as he unhooks the baby and lifts him to his chest.   
“Hey buddy, what has gotten you so upset?” He asks as he looks to Betty who was clearly trying to control her anger.   
“This child,” she looks at the little boy who is now swinging the truck in the air and running around the waiting room, clearly annoying the other people in the room and Janice behind the desk, “threw his toy at Juniper and hit her. She woke up crying and that woke Dagger up and then he started beating on the carriers.” Nodding to his mother she continues, “his mother doesn’t seem to care that her child is attacking my babies and terrorizing the whole office.”  
Jughead’s eyes widen at her pointed words at the other woman but he just nods in response. He has gotten Dagger calmed down and leans over to look at Juniper. When he sees that she is bleeding, he understands Betty’s anger but he remains quiet.   
“He is a kid,” the other woman starts.   
“Yeah, he is your kid, who attacked my daughter and hurt her. You need to get him under control before he hurts someone else.”   
“What are you, sixteen? I think I will forgo parenting tips from a high school student.” the woman rolled her eyes.   
“My age is inconsequential to this situation! My baby is bleeding because you are too lazy to parent your child in public. Instead of throwing judgements my way, why don’t you put down the candy crush, get off your fat ass and handle your kid before he hurts someone else?” The blonde snaps. Jughead knows that her anger is justified but it is also upsetting Juniper even more that her mom is upset. Stepping into Betty’s eyeline he runs his hand over Juniper’s head, “Switch,” he suggests and she nods, handing him Juniper and taking Dagger in a well rehearsed dance.   
Rubbing her back, he walks toward the desk, “It’s okay babygirl. Daddy has you and it is going to be alright angel,” his soft words and gentle movements did the trick and the baby had calmed to little sobs as she snuggled herself into his chest. He waited patiently for the receptionist to get off the phone to ask, “Do you have a tissue that I can use? Her face got scratched and it is bleeding a little.”  
“Oh no!” Janice stands and looks over at the little girl, “I’ll do you one better, why don’t you bring both of them back and I will get Katie to take a look.”  
Letting out a sigh of relief, he offers her a smile, “That would be great. Thank you,” Betty could not repress a chuckle at another woman falling for the Jones charm. Leaning down, she picks up the diaper bag and Jason’s carseat, Jughead returning to retrieve Juniper’s carseat and taking the diaper bag from Betty. She rolls her eyes at his need for chivalry, but her smile at this man that held her heart never wavered.   
They are met at the door by Katie and follow her to an exam room. As she closes the door behind them she asks, “So what happened to this little Princess?”   
She is addressing Betty but when she notices the babies’ clothing she shifts her eyes to the baby that Jughead is holding, “Oh, sorry,” she offers the young man a smile as he sits the baby girl down on the exam table.   
“Jug, this is Katie Marshall. She used to babysit me,” Betty introduced the nurse, “Katie, this is my boyfriend Jughead Jones.”  
“Nice to meet you,” Katie smiled as she leaned down to look at Juniper’s cheek. The tiny redhead looked at her in what could only be described as distrust, “ironically”, Jughead thought, “this was also the most she ever looked like Betty.” After the morning she had had, he decided that he should probably keep that thought in his head because his girlfriend may kill him if he said it out loud. As soon as the nurse touched her with antiseptic, the girl started to cry and reach up for her dad. Luckily Katie works quick and Jughead scoops his girl up as soon as she is done.  
“Junebug, you are okay,” he rubbed the baby’s back even though she had stopped crying the second that she could snuggle back into him.   
Chuckling, Katie observes, “Someone is a Daddy’s girl.”   
Betty chuckles, “You have no idea.”  
“Well the cut is superficial but she may get a little bruise.” Katie adds before Dr. Wexler knocked on the door and entered the exam room.   
“Oh no, double trouble!” Dr. Wexler smiles at the babies. Dr. Wexler had been Polly and Betty’s pediatrician and he was always kind to them. He offers Betty a smile and leaned over to tug on Dagger’s foot, “Hey little guy, did you know that I took care of your mommy when she was your age?”   
She returns his smile but she feels awkward starting this conversation, “Um, about that,” she looks to Jughead who slides his free hand around her, resting it on her lower back, letting her know that he is here supporting her. She sighs and looks to the doctor, “So, the babies, they’re Polly’s biologically, but I, um we, and the twins other aunt Cheryl and her partner are raising them. Cheryl Blossom and I are their legal parents.” she sputtered in a way that was wholly foreign to the confidence she had shown in the waiting room. Dr. Wexler smiles at her, pushing his glasses up to frame his intelligent eyes, he stops her, “Your mother explained the situation when she brought them in two months ago.”   
Betty tensed, grateful for Jughead’s hand on her back to balance her.   
“I take it that you didn’t know that she had brought them in,” Dr. Wexler looks apologetic.   
“Baby,” Jughead whispers as he turns to face her, the color draining from her face completely, “Sit down,” he guides her into a chair against the wall of the small room. He recognized the signs of an impending panic attack and was trying to head it off. After a few deep breaths her cheeks flushed with pink and he knows that it is equal parts her calming down and the embarrassment of nearly breaking down. Letting her pull her thoughts together, Jughead answers, “No, we didn’t. Ms. Smith disappeared a few weeks ago and we are just finding out about a lot of stuff. We are trying to make sure that the babies are safe.”  
Both Katie and Dr. Wexler offer her understanding smiles. “I guess I should be glad that she was making sure that they are healthy. Any type of record is a benefit,” she reconsiders several of the questions that she was going to ask, “Do you know if they have had any of their vaccinations? I know that the Farm was not big on them and we want the kids vaccinated.”   
Smiling at the blonde, Dr. Wexler opens the twins files on his ipad.  
“Well we did their first round of vaccinations when your mom brought them in so they are not behind. We will do the second Hep B, DTaP, Polio, Hib, and the second round of RV1.”  
Both Jughead and Betty look at him wide eyed. “Wow, that seems like a lot,” Jughead whispers.   
“I know,” Katie hands them each an information sheet on the vaccines, “but it is safe and it is over soon.”   
“You two are both going to need to get an booster on your Tdap vaccines as well. Actually, anyone that is going to be spending long periods of time with the babies should have a Tdap booster.” Dr. Wexler notes as he pulls on his gloves.   
Nodding Betty looks to Jughead, “I’ll text Cheryl and Toni now and let them know,” he nods as the doctor steps towards them, “okay,” the doctor looks back and forth between the two babies, “We are going to check in on Jason’s lesions, do the well baby checks on both of them, and then do their shots. Now in general, we find it easier to separate twins when it comes time for the shots because they tend to feed off of each other’s distress.” The young parents just nod and listen intently as he examines the twins. They are both relieved to learn that both of their babies are very healthy and that Jason is on his way to a full recovery and that he has gained back the weight that he had lost while with Chic.  
“Okay, now if one of you will bring Juniper with me to the weigh station in the hallway so we can do Jason’s shots,” Katie asks in a bright tone.   
Looking to Jughead, Betty smiles, “I think it's best that you stick with our girl since she loves you best. Once Jason is done I’m going to walk across the street to see your dad. Meet me there?” He offers her a soft smile and nods, “We’ll meet you over there,” pressing a kiss to her head, before turning to Dagger and kissing his head as well, “be brave little guy.” He whispers before following Katie out of the room.   
“Can you do my booster shot first,” Bettty asks Dr. Wexler. It is honestly a delay tactic because she is terrified to watch her baby get stuck with needles.   
Dr. Wexler’s smile lets her know that he sees through her but he still nods indulgently and reaches for the alcohol swab as she shifts Dagger onto her left hip and pulls the boat collar of her shirt down deeming that easier than trying to strip off her long sleeved shirt while holding Dagger. Betty smiles at her son, giggling at him as he blows raspberries. She talks to him, making faces and feeling like she has won a battle when he laughs and claps at her. Squealing in response and completely not noticing as Dr. Wexler delfly gives him his shots.   
“Okay,” the doctor tickles Dagger’s chin as he sticks the bandaid on the baby’s chubby thigh, “You are all done buddy!” the baby smiles in at the strange man, “Let Mama get you dressed.”  
Betty thanks the doctor and quickly dresses her boy as the doctor explains that the babies may get a fever and that Tylanol should handle one if it arises. She thanks him again and grabs the diaper bag and Dagger’s carrier in one arm and keeps the baby on her hip. She smiles at Janice on the way out, thanking her again for getting them back so fast, and drops the car seat and diaper bag off in the car before jogging across the street and into the Sheriff's office.   
The bullpen is a flurry of activity, deputies, detectives, and people in suits that Betty could only assume were FBI agents busied themselves over open files and stacks of paper. F.P.’s office was at the back of the large room, the double doors of it propped open but Betty did not see him in the office. As she turns to ask Michele his secretary, she hears his booming voice from the door that led to the cells, “Betty,” he smiles at her, making his way through the room, “and my favorite grandson!”   
As he reaches her he chuckles, “Oh my goodness, he has a crown beanie!” He touches the tips of the crown as he presses a kiss to the baby’s head. “Where the hell did you find that?”  
“Yeah, Veronica thought the twins needed hats like their Daddy,” she turns a bit, “Look,” she points to the embrotored Serpent symbol. “She said every Prince and Princess needs a crown.”   
Dagger giggles and claps reaching for the Sheriff. “Do you want to come hang out with Papa buddy?” He takes the baby, tickling his belly, “What did the doctor say?”   
Betty cannot help but smile as F.P. tickled the baby, “Dr. Wexler said that he is healing up well and that his weight is back up. They are both healthy and they got shots today.”  
F.P. grimaced at the thought, “How did that go?”  
Chuckling, she lightly ran her finger over the little boy’s thigh, “He did great! Didn’t even cry. I almost did but he seemed like he didn’t notice. Jug is still in there with Juniper, they wanted to do them separately. He’ll be over in a few minutes.” She shifts her eyes, “By the way, you and Jellybean are going to have to get a booster shot for whooping cough,” he nods that he will set it up with the doctor’s office. On the surface, they seemed every inch the young mother and the proud grandfather, but the keen observer would notice that they were having a silent conversation that had nothing to do with vaccines and baby hats. F.P. nods and turns, “Michele, have you seen my handsome grandson?” He leaves Betty to go show off Dagger and the blonde wonders into his office knowing that she would find Charles there.   
Entering the office, she ignores that there is anyone else in the room. She makes her way to the string wall tracking her mother that is taking up most of the wall behind F.P.’s desk. Her steps are as measured as her breaths as she reaches out for the picture of her mother smiling at the center of the chaos. It is a recent picture, Alice’s smile wide and her eyes are filled with happiness as she laughs at whoever is taking the picture. It strikes Betty though, that she has never seen this picture and she wonders who took it? Who made her mom that happy?

“We will find her,” a voice comes from the left corner of the room. Betty waits a few beats, removing the thumb tack from the picture of her mother and taking it down before responding, “Don’t make assertions about things that you cannot know.” Her voice seems pointed even to her own ears.   
“We will find her, that is a fact,” Charles doubles down as he moves closer to his sister.   
With a weary sigh, she angrily brushes her tears away as she worries the corner of the picture. Spinning on her toes to face her brother she can’t miss his flench at her quick movement. 

He looks down and puts his hands in his pockets in an attempt to center himself and find the words to connect with this girl that he shared a mother with. “I’m sorry,” his voice is soft and betraying his conflicting emotions. “I should not have just showed up like I did. I didn’t mean to cause problems for you or for Jellybean. I, uh,” he scratches his eyebrow, a gesture that reminds her so much of Jughead that it is weird, “I didn’t actually plan on dumping everything on you but with Alice missing I needed to talk to you. I didn’t expect you to see through me.”   
Betty rolls her eyes, grateful that she is still facing the wall so that he could not see her.   
“Yeah, well your story didn’t make sense so,” she turns, wanting to end this pointless line of discussion, “Walk me through the case thus far.”   
He looks shocked for a moment before Betty tilts her head to the wall and raises her eyebrows to spur him on. “Um, okay, so before Mom got involved,” Betty tries to suppress her discomfort at this stranger calling her mother “Mom”, “we found out that the Farm had been recruiting members from people in a string of towns throughout New York and Pennsylvania and required dangerous rites to become a full member. Most of this information came from the family of a young woman that died during a ‘baptism’,” he actually uses air quotes, Betty thought to herself as she watched him intently, “Both of their daughters had become obsessed with the teachings of the Farm. They raised money, followed their diet and dress code, hell,” he chuffed, “They even changed their entire wardrobe and hair color to fit in. They had liquidated all of their property and were planning to move to the farm after their official baptism. Unfortunately only one of them survived that process and she ran that night. After their daughter’s death, the family wanted the Farm shut down.”  
“Martha,” Betty crossed her arms, suddenly feeling cold even though the heat was pumping in the station on the chilly November morning.  
Charles’ face betrayed his shock as he looked at her, “Yeah, how did you,” he leaves the question hanging.   
“I tracked her down when Mom told me that she was going to be baptized. Martha was terrified but she told me about what happened when she was at the farm and what happened to her sister. Once you established what the Farm was doing, or at least part of it, how did you track them?” She redirects their conversation.   
Shocked at her hyperfocus, he feels childed by her words and continues, “Um, well Agent Daniels, a supervisory agent, was assigned to do recon on the Farm to see if there really was anything illegal going on there or if they were just a bunch of hippy weirdos. He put out some feelers and ran down all of the financials that he could on Evernever and the members of the Farm.”   
“Let me guess, he found nothing,” Betty tries not to sound as bitter and jaded as she felt about the whole situation.   
“Yup, pretty much,” Charles takes a few steps towards her, “But then he started tracking the members and the official story that they sell to recruit new members from the families of those members and things did not add up. Evernever didn’t exist until ten years ago, there are no real records on him, his wife, or Stephan Avery, his former right hand and, we believe, his enforcer.”   
Spinning Betty asks, “Who? There was no Stephan or Steve at the Farm when I was there.”  
“Exactly,” he pauses for effect, “From what we can surmise Avery was one of the earliest members of the Farm and he became high ranking pretty quickly. He was a trust fund baby who inherited $10 million dollars when his father died. He also inherited his family’s dairy farm which was worth another $4 million.”  
“Is that farm upstate and has housing for more than a nuclear family?” Betty scoffed, as she began to pace in front of the crime board.   
“Yeah, it is 1000 acres just this side of the border, complete with housing buildings that have been constructed in the last 9 years. Banking records indicate that Avery paid for everything and then the farm itself was signed over to Evelyn and all of his assets were liquidated. Once the funds were moved around by Avery, the group applied for tax exempt status as a church, naming themselves “the Farm”. They were inspected and approved so Avery signed over all of his money to the “church” of the Farm. That meant that no one had to pay taxes and it seems that most of the money was never deposited into the shell bank accounts, making it seem as if they were not bringing in much money to anyone who was tracking those accounts.”   
Nodding, Betty opens her mouth to ask, “How many of the oth-,” but she is cut off by the sharp cries of her daughter. Spinning on her heel she moves quickly towards the bullpen meeting Jughead in the middle of the room, Juniper screaming her redhead off in his arms.   
“Oh babygirl,” upon hearing her mother’s voice she turned and started grabbing for her, “Did Daddy let that man with the needles near you?” She asks as she takes the baby who immediately buries her face in Betty’s chest, allowing the blonde to comfort her with gentle words and a steady palm rubbing circles on her back. “Shh, you’re okay Junebug, you’re okay. Mama’s got you and you are safe.” The baby’s cries have calmed into a few hiccuping sobs and mews against Betty’s skin. Looking to Jughead, who looked incredibly relieved that his little girl was no longer so upset.   
Offering her boyfriend a smile as he steps forward and rests his hand on her hip, she asks, “So, I take it that she didn’t like getting her shots?”  
Chuckling as he quickly kisses Betty, both in greeting and in thanks for her help with Juniper, he rubs the baby’s head, kissing her as well. “Actually,” he chuckles, “She did fine with her shots, just one quick cry and then she got that determined face that makes her look exactly like Cheryl,” giggling, Betty nods knowing exactly what look that he is talking about. “But when Dr. Wexler got near me with the needle she freaked out.”   
Looking down at her girl, Betty smiles, swaying back and forth with the baby, “Were you worried about Daddy babygirl?” Kissing the baby’s head, Betty takes a deep breath, breathing in the soft baby smell. That scent was fast becoming her favorite thing on Earth. It triggered this sense of overwhelming calm that Betty only ever felt while holding her babies.   
Jughead can’t hide his smile at the sight that his two girls make, they are so beautiful, like something out of a painting. Looking around a bit, he asks, “Where is Dagger? Dad lock him up already?” Betty chuckles at his remark, “Actually, your dad is showing his handsome grandson off to everyone in the station. At this point he may be introducing him to the drunks in the holding cells.”  
He chuckles, “Yeah, he can show him all of his favorite benches,” but there is no fire behind his words, as testament to how far his relationship with his dad had grown over the last year.   
As Juniper settles completely against her mother, her brow wrinkles and her bottom lip out, Jughead laughs again shaking his head, “Damn, even her pout is precious. We are in for it when she gets older. I mean who can resist that face.” He presses another kiss to his daughter’s head. Betty chuckles in response, knowing that it is true. “Cheryl’s attitude and your determination? Definitely a deadly combination,” she responds while taking his hand and pulling him towards his dad’s office.  
“Don’t forget your brains and Toni’s ability to charm anyone, she is going to have the world in her hands and she will be unstoppable.” The doting parents do not acknowledge Charles at first, insread sharing a smile over their daughter’s head before turning to the murder board.   
“Charles was just walking me through the Farm case. We were here,” she points to the bank transfers from Avery. She quickly catches Jughead up but Charles seems to be observing them both more than listening to her. He watched how they interacted with each other and with their daughter. The casual way that Jughead stood behind her, his hand rested on her hip, thumb running over the top of her hip bone under her overalls. His free hand grabbing the baby’s foot as he listened to Betty as if he was reassuring his daughter that he was there. For her part, the blonde unconsciously leaned back towards the boy, her head tilted towards him as her intelligent eyes tracked the evidence that it had taken him and his team over a year to amass.   
He is shaken from his focus when Betty asks, “Charles?” he realizes that he had missed a question, “Sorry, what?”  
“Did I leave anything out?” She raises her eyebrows.  
“Um,” he pinches the bridge of his nose, “Sorry, I am seriously lacking sleep.”   
Nodding, she smiles, “I’m sure,” she and Jughead share a look before he asks, “So the farm and an impressive budget were donated by this Stephan Avery guy, what did the other members bring to the table?”   
“That was what we asked. It seems like most of them brought either money, skills, or children to the group. We have not been able to connect any biological children to Evernever but he has at least ten.”  
Betty tightened her hold on Juniper a bit more and tried to repress the shudder that passed through her body. Jughead pressed a kiss to her forehead and to the top of Juniper’s head.  
“Yeah, we knew that he wanted to adopt the twins but we were unclear on the other kids. I mean Evelyn was publicly his daughter but it turns out that she is really his wife.”  
“One of many it would seem,” Charles adds unable to repress a look of disgust.   
“Yeah, how did that work?” Jughead asks.   
Struggling Charles answers, “Well, from what we can tell only the first marriage is legal but all of the women involved have changed their names and signed over all property and holdings to “the Farm” which is solely controlled by Edger. They also run small online businesses that sell crafts and antiques.”   
“They help him wash the money from the organs,” Jughead concludes as he follows the information laid out before him.   
“And trust me, there is a lot of money,” Betty’s eyebrows raise to emphasize her words in a way that Charles thinks makes her look just like their mother.   
“Yeah, the organ harvesting started about the same time that the Farm was established. From what Mom could find out, the enterprise began once the Siani transplant team would not move Evelyn up the donor list because she had already had a transplant. They turned to the black market and saw the amount of money that could be made and all of the healthy organs that their members had…” he left the thought hanging and they all repressed a shutter. The moment is broken when Charles gets a text on his phone and Betty notices that Juniper needs a diaper change. Turning to her boyfriend she asks, “Will you go grab the diaper bag out of the car? She needs to be changed,”   
“Of course,” he smiles, taking her keys and quickly making his way out of the room.   
Turning to her brother, Betty asks, “How were they removing the organs?” Scoffing at her own question she restates, “I mean, who had the training to remove the organs without damage and prepare them for transplant. That is a pretty specialized set of skills.”   
“We are not sure, it is one of the things that Mom was working on,” he answers, his frustration with not being able to answer the question clear in his countenance.   
“You should talk to Kevin and Toni. Fangs and Kevin both had kidneys removed and Toni was going into surgery when Cheryl saved her so they would know who was involved in the surgical team and who did any preparation.” Looking back at the wall detailing the case, her voice sounds haunted, “They all thought that they were getting their pain removed.”   
Taking a few steps towards her, Charles nods, “That is a really good idea. We have never had any of the members who survived surgery defect from the group that are willing to talk to us.”  
Turning to face him again Betty bit her lip, “Um,” she takes a deep breath, “if you would like, you could come interview Toni at the house, maybe spend some time. Also,” she takes a deep breath and turns to face him, her eyes timid as she finally raises them to meet his blue ones, “We have a tradition, we all have Sunday dinner every week no matter what else is going on. We are doing it this week and the whole family should be there,” looking over her shoulder at the picture of her mom she amends, “well almost everyone.You should come, start getting to know everyone.”   
Charles is unable to mask the shock and desperation to be a part of her family off of his face, “If you are sure then it would be my honor.”   
She offers him a bright smile, “Great!” he cannot help but return her smile as she continues, “Be at FP’s at 1. I’m cooking so if you have any food allergies or a special diet text them to me.”   
The noisy entrance of several agents through the front door draws Betty’s attention and she walks out of FP’s office as if her feet have a mind of their own. As she reaches the middle of the bull pin the agents split and she sees Chic, in a beige jumpsuit, hands cuffed in front of him, smirk firmly plastered on his face. As his eyes find her malice flashes in their icy blue depths.   
“Hey little sister Betty,” his voice makes the hair on the back of her neck stand up. Looking to the baby on her chest he snarks, “Still cleaning up precious Polly’s mistakes I see. Tell me, since Mommy spent all of your money how are you feeding those babies? Still turning tricks on the internet?”   
Betty stayed frozen, as if she believed that if she stayed completely still then the predator that she once thought was her brother would move on. She tightened her arms around her daughter, wanting to keep her safe in the presence of the man who had nearly killed her son. Unfortunately, Chic just kept talking.   
“You should have seen Hal when I told him about you. The scars, the self harm, the wigs and lingerie and BDSM. Mommy Penelope was intrigued, she wanted to hire you, but Hal would not hear of it. He went on a rampage when he found out that his perfect little girl, the one that he thought would follow him down his path to darkness was just a common whore. Selling it on the internet to disgusting old men.”   
Betty had not seen Jughead walk back into the station but he heard the last bit of what Chic said to his girl. He recognized the look on her face, grateful that both of her hands were occupied holding Juniper because he knew that without the baby she would be digging her nails into her palms. He drops the bag and quickly makes his way around two desks to get to the other side of the cluster of agents blocking his path to the blonde. Reaching out for her he spreads his hand over her stomach just below Juniper’s bottom. Chic continues, “Oh the gandbanger boyfriend,” he chuckles, “wait, is he pimping you now?”  
“Bet,” he whispers and she turns her wide eyes to him, “you okay?” She swallows thickly and nods, whispering, “Yeah,” but the pair seem to have an entire conversation as they stay focused on each other's faces. She shakes her head and the tense line of his shoulders falls just a bit.  
The tension between the two is broken by a happy squeal from the right side of the room. The young parents and Chic all turn to see the Sheriff holding Dagger, the baby laughing and clapping at his Papa.   
“Oh there’s my boy,” Chic’s gaze was hauntingly predatory, “Little Jason come here to Daddy.”   
Betty barely registered Jughead’s movement until his fist slammed into Chic’s face. With no regard for the room full of cops and feds both young men tumbled to the floor. Jughead landed on his knees, straddling the handcuffed killer as he landed blow after blow into his face. The handcuffs that are holding Chic’s wrist together in front of his body become a weapon that he uses to bash the sharp metal into the top of Jughead’s head as he uses his chained hands like a club beating the younger man.  
It seems like slow motion as F.P. hands Dagger off to Michele and runs to get his son off of the prisoner before he hits a federal agent and gets arrested. Betty is pushed into a desk as Charles runs around her to grab his brother. She scrabbles to not fall or drop Juniper as her hip catches the corner of the desk, making her cry out in pain. It takes F.P., Charles, and two other agents to pull Jughead and Chic apart, she can hear F.P. bark, "stand down boy, you have other priorities," causing the young man to stop throwing punches and allow Charles to pull him back. F.P. and three agents surround Chic as they get him to his feet and rush him off to the holding cells so he can get medical attention, Chic laughing maniacally the whole time as blood rolled down his face. It is only once they are gone that Betty looks down to see that Charles has cuffed Jughead and is hauling him to his feet.


End file.
